2017 had its share of unexpected hits, but I doubt anyone sawJumanji: Welcome to the Junglebecoming such a juggernaut at the box office. Although the movie is undoubtedly a crowd-pleaser featuring bankable stars likeDwayne Johnson,Kevin Hart, andJack Black, it’s still amazing that the feature now stands as the fifth-highest grossing movie of 2017. More than that, it now stands at the third most successful movie in Sony’s history.
If you check out this chart from Box Office Mojo, you’ll see thatJumanjinow trails justSpider-ManandSpider-Man 2on the list of the studio’s hits, and it will likely overtakeSpider-Man 2to become the studio’s second-highest grossing movie of all-time. That’s an impressive level of success, especially when you consider that theJumanjibrand laid low since the 1995Robin Williamsmovie. Additionally, the movie had a solid but not Earth-shattering $36 million opening weekend, so its success not comes from busting out the gate, but by having serious legs throughout the holidays and into January.Welcome to the Jungleis also the studio’s third-highest grossing movie internationally ahead ofSpectreandSpider-Man: Homecoming.
Sony is nowmoving ahead on aJumanji 3and aims to bring back the cast ofWelcome to the Jungle. No director has been announced yet, although I assume Sony is trying to getWelcome to the JunglehelmerJake Kasdanback behind the camera (not too shabby a performance for a guy who had never had a gigantic hit like this despite directing cult classics such asWalk Hard: The Dewey Cox StoryandZero Effect). It will be interesting to see how quickly Sony can get a sequel going and if they’ll be able to capitalize on the massive success ofWelcome to the Jungle.
