‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ took everyone by surprise, including its studio Sony who expected it to be a modest success in the face of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’. But shocking everyone, after two weeks, ‘Jumanji’ actually rose to #1 taking ‘The Last Jedi”s place, where it remained for three weeks before finally dipping this past weekend, when ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ opened. At the beginning of January, ComScore’s senior media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian said:
“This is all about Jumanji’s staying power. This is a movie that was overshadowed by all the excitement around The Last Jedi, and yet Jumanji just kept plugging away and drawing audiences throughout the holiday … This is kind of unheard of for a movie this size.”
Even while slipping to #2, ‘Jumanji‘ has slid in as Sony’s third-highest-grossing film, falling just behind Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Spider-Man 2’. That means this film, starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan has outpaced last year’s hit ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ in terms of domestic box office. Worldwide, ‘Jumanji’ still has a bit further to go before overtaking the Jon Watts/Tom Holland reboot.
On the flip side, ‘Jumanji’ will soon overtake ‘Wonder Woman’ globally, but not domestically. Yes, while ‘Wonder Woman’ made waves here in the U.S. last summer, ‘Homecoming’ actually did better globally.
On a non-superhero note, this has now become Dwayne Johnson’s best performing film outside of the ‘Fast & Furious’ brand.
Word-of-mouth has been strong for this film since it first premiered. Other studios, and possibly Sony itself, will look at this film’s success and likely pin it on the fact that ‘Jumanji’ was an established brand thanks to the 1995 Robin Williams film and start mining their vaults in efforts to find other dormant films that can be reinvented. But ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ is essentially ‘Jumanji’ in name only. Buzz spread for one simple reason– it was a FUN movie that worked for both children and adults of all ages.
Did you see ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’? Are there any other older films that you think can be revived for a new generation?
Source: Cinema Blend
