Director Jake Kasdan’s second Jumanji film, The Next Level, dominated at the U.S. box office over its first three days of release, selling an incredible $60 million domestically and $212 million worldwide.
Kasdan was able to reunite his all-star cast from the last Jumaji film, including Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. Awkwafina, Danny DeVito, Nick Jonas, Colin Hanks, Alex Wolff, Dania Ramirez, Rhys Darby, and Danny Glover all support. Look for this one to make a billion over the next month or so.
Also at the Box
Disney’s Frozen II took the No. 2 spot at the box with another $19 million in sales, upping the flick’s 24-day total to just over $1 billion worldwide. Whoa. Not bad for a film a lot of folks thought was at risk of being a flop leading up to its release. I’m pretty sure we can expect Frozen III (or some sort of Frozen spin-off) in the next two years.
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (named after a Radiohead song?) continued to roll over its third weekend, selling another $9.3 million, bringing the ensemble whodunit’s 17-day domestic sales total to just under $80 million. Add in foreign market sales and Knives Out has already brought in $162 million. Wow. That’s the power of an ensemble cast. Knives Out stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stansfield, Christopher Plummer, Katherine Langford, and Frank Oz.
Clint Eastwood’s latest, Richard Jewell, had a rough start, taking the No. 4 spot at the domestic box with just $5 million in sales while James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari continued to fill seats over its fifth weekend of release, taking the No. 5 spot with another $4.2 million in sales. Mangold’s latest opus has now sold $98 million domestically and $185 million internationally. It’s the rare non-IP film that gets great reviews, gets award nominations, and sells well all over the world.
Also of note
The Safdie Brothers’ new flick, Uncut Gems, set all kinds of records over the weekend, bringing in over half a million dollars despite playing on just five screens. The movie stars Adam Sandler and is getting almost universally glowing reviews. Uncut Gems is out everywhere on Christmas Eve.
New this Week
This weekend will see the release of two very expensive, very discussed, much anticipated new films.
The first one, Tom Hooper’s Cats, based on the legendary Broadway play, looks like a stinker. Have you seen the trailer yet? Have you read the reviews? Did you notice the lack of Golden Globe nominations?
Condolences to Cats fans who have had high hopes for this film for years. It looks like it could turn out to be the biggest stinker of 2019.
And then we have a little movie called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The movie event of the year? It’s looking like, Avengers: Endgame aside, that might turn out to be the case.
The film, which was directed by The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, features one of the most notable casts in Hollywood history, including Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Keri Russell, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Lupita Wyong’o, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Fleeson, John Bodega, Richard E. Grant, Greg Grunberg, and Billie Lourd. Look for this one to be the talk of Christmas this year.
