Jackass Forever hurled all competition, including Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall, into the air in a Porta Potty this weekend, debuting with an estimated $20.7 million across three days. The slapstick comedy film, which gives the genre a rather literal twist, made almost twice as much as the disaster drama Moonfall, which is estimated to make between $10 million and $12 million.
Strung together by increasingly dangerous stunts performed by a bunch of brave performers, Jackass Forever, which arrives over a decade after the last main entry in the long-running franchise—and almost a decade after 2013’s spinoff Bad Grandpa—now qualifies as a legacy sequel. It also marks the second bona fide hit of the year for the struggling Paramount, which has admirably stuck to its guns when it comes to franchise material.
As it did with A Quiet Place Part II and January’s Scream reboot, the studio held on to an exclusive theatrical debut for Jackass Forever, despite the temptation of releasing the film on its own fledgling streaming service. And just like the second Quiet Place and the new Scream, the gamble appears to have paid off, because Jackass Forever cost a mere $10 million to produce.
“Cheap” is hardly the word one can use to describe the $150 million Moonfall, which has a plot so ridiculous that it prompted many viewers to recall a viral 2018 tweet. Starring Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, and John Bradley, among others, the film marks Emmerich’s return to a genre that he never really left. Moonfall opened to middling reviews and a disappointing C+ CinemaScore. For those keeping score at home, this is the sixth commercial under-performer in a row from the once formidably successful filmmaker, following Anonymous, White House Down, Stonewall, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Midway.
Perhaps it’s a case of combined disinterest in disaster movies and Emmerich’s mid-2000s style of filmmaking, but the director certainly didn’t win any fans when he dissed Marvel movies in the run-up to Moonfall’s release.
Speaking of which, Moonfall can at least claim to have outperformed Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s another matter altogether that the Sony/Marvel superhero film is in its eighth week of release, and has finished at the top of the box office on six weekends. It slipped to the number three spot this time around, with an estimated $8.8 million across three days. With nearly $750 million in the bank domestically, the film is now just around $12 million shy of eclipsing Avatar to become the third-highest grossing movie of all time.
Paramount’s Scream finished at the number four spot, with an estimated $4.3 million, taking its running domestic total to a strong $68.5 million. Internationally, the horror reboot has made over $100 million, and a follow-up was officially announced earlier this week, with director duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett returning.
Universal’s Sing 2 is estimated to make another $4 million this weekend, rounding out the top five. The animated sequel’s running domestic total is nearly $140 million, which is remarkable for a film that has been available to rent on digital for weeks. It is also the highest-grossing animated film since 2019’s Frozen II.
Next weekend will see the release of director Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, the long-delayed sequel to his 2017 hit Murder on the Orient Express; the Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy Marry Me; and our annual trip to the Liam Neeson school of action cinema, Blacklight.