“Jumanji: The Next Level” Crushes Expectations

By: Keaton Marcus

Diving into the weekend, Sony’s Jumanji: The Next Level ferociously clawed the top spot with some impressive numbers both domestically and overseas, notably crushing expectations, and it’s hit predecessor. Otherwise, holdovers made dough as well, with Frozen II and Knives Out managing to beat out two other new releases, Richard Jewell and Black Christmas, which both tanked.

First and foremost, Sony/Columbia’s Jumanji: The Next Level utterly delivered, earning an estimated 60.1M in ticket sales. From a massive 4,227 theaters, the adventure sequel garnered a per-screen average of $14,218; additionally, it trampled its 45-55M pre-weekend expectations, topping even the most lofty. Despite not reaching the gargantuan-type area, the follow-up generated much Holiday cheer. With comps, The Next Level easily beat the likes of Rampage (35.7M), The Meg (45.4M) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (47.7M) while even slightly beating Dwayne Johnson’s other big hit this year, Hobbs & Shaw (60M). With the competition above, we get an average multiplier of around 2.8x, which means a finish of around 170M, however, considering this is the sequel to Welcome to the Jungle, the flick that opened to 36M and took its run to over 404M and nearly one billion worldwide, it depends if audiences are willing to stay.

Internationally, the wins won’t stop. After debuting last week overseas, The Next Level brought an additional 85.7M from 52 markets, for a foreign gross of 152.5M and an excellent global opening of 212.6M. This is significantly larger than any of its comps, including the 179M worldwide debut for Hobbs & Shaw, which later went on to top 758M globally. This is very, very good news. The UK is its leading market, with a five-day of 12.6M, followed by Russia (8.9M) and Germany (4.6M). Upcoming releases include Italy (December 25), Australia (December 26) and Brazil (January 16).

Review wise, The Next Level garnered mixed-to-positive reviews from the critics, and very warm reception from audiences. On Sweet and Sour, we gave it a solid 70/100 “sweet/sour”, calling it an “enjoyable, well-acted and solid sequel”. On the other hand, RottenTomatoes weighed it at a 66% “Fresh” from 157 reviews with a consensus of: “Like many classic games, Jumanji: The Next Level retains core components of what came before while adding enough fresh bits to keep things playable”. Audiences gave it an 88% approval rating on RT, and an A- CinemaScore.

In runner-up, Disney’s Frozen II grossed an estimated 19.2M in its fourth weekend, dipping a reasonable 45.5% for a domestic total that now tops 366.5M after 24 days in release. Overseas, the animated sequel’s international earnings now sum up to 666M for a worldwide total quickly topping one billion (1.032B). It has now topped both Zootopia (1.023B) and Finding Dory (1.028B), and is getting ready to surpass Toy Story 3 (1.066B) and Toy Story 4 (1.073B). The question is: will it hold on enough to top the two biggest animated films ever: Incredibles 2 (1.242B), and the original Frozen (1.274B)?

Third place holds Lionsgate’s Knives Out which made 9.3M in its third weekend of release, sliding only 34.9% and topping a solid 78.9M domestically. The murder mystery should be on its way to a 105-110M finish. Overseas, the pic added an estimated 13.6M from 73 material markets, making for a foreign 83.3M and a worldwide bout of 162.2M.

Fourthly, the second new release was WB and Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell which debuted fairly disappointingly, finishing with just 5M from 2,502 theaters. This is far behind its 12M forecasts, and is even more concerning considering its positive reviews.

Rounding out the top five was another new release, Universal’s holiday-themed horror flick Black Christmas which utterly tanked, grossing only 4.4M from 2,625 locations, averaging a mere $1,683 per-screen. Not only is the performance trailing its 10-15M expectations, it also matches its fairly negative reception.

Next weekend, it’s the movie event of the year, the end of the saga, its Disney’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker!! Yep, its arrived, and its got 225M+ expectations heading into the weekend, but some still say that it may beat The Force Awakens for the largest franchise opening of all-time. What’s really gonna be terrifying is watching animated feature Spies in Disguise and live-action musical Cats get slayed by the weekend winner.

TOP FIVE:

Jumanji: The Next Level
Frozen II
Knives Out
Richard Jewell
Black Christmas