Box Office: Jackass Forever has a big opening but Moonfall underwhelms

As expected, Jackass Forever easily topped the box office this weekend, proving once again that Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the fellas still have a lot of box office muscle. Yet, the same cannot be said for Roland Emmerich, whose Moonfall is turning out to be a pricey bomb for Lionsgate, who’ve opted not even to bother opening the film in Canada, which certainly affected the grosses.

Jackass Forever exceeded box office tracking with an opening of $23.5 million. While this is below the $50 million opening of Jackass 3D, it’s still pretty remarkable considering how poorly the box office has fared due to the pandemic. This reps another solid start for Paramount Pictures after their success with Scream in January. Given the film’s slim $10 million budget, the movie is already a success for the studio. According to the release put out by Comscore, Paramount had the following to say about the movie’s box office performance. “A terrific opening for this well-reviewed (Certified Fresh @ 85% on Rotten Tomatoes) and well-received latest installment of Jackass, Jackass Forever has proven once again the enduring need for laughter. Johnny Knoxville and team have delivered not only to their core audience, but they have also surprised and delighted a new and younger generation of moviegoers.”

The outlook wasn’t quite as rosy for Moonfall, which made its debut in second place with a gross of $10 million. Moonfall had a lot working against it this weekend with poor critical reviews and a cancelled theatrical run in Canada. The film has a reported $146 million budget, so it will have to do some work overseas to break even, although such is always the case for Emmerich, who hasn’t had a real stateside hit since 2012, way back in 2009.

Spider-Man: No Way Home fell to third place with a gross of $9.6 million. The superhero epic is still seeing solid holds despite being in release for over a month. The film has reached a domestic total of $748.9 million which means it’s in striking distance of overtaking Avatar on the all-time domestic list ($760 million).

Meanwhile, Scream, which just got a sequel greenlit, is in fourth place with $4.7 million. However, it only fell a modest 35%. With theatres just re-opening in some areas of Canada, who will only now be getting the much-anticipated sequel, expect another solid hold next week.

In fifth is Sing 2, and the animated sequel has had solid legs at the box office, grossing $4.1 million despite being on PVOD, for a total of $139.5 million. The King’s Man has also done better than expected, with many writing off the big-budget spy flick due to middling grosses. While the movie has indeed only grossed a fraction of what the other movies in the series have, considering the pandemic and the fact that it’s still holding on with only a 29% drop since last week (despite losing 505 theatres), the movie hasn’t done as bad as all that. It made $1.184 million this week, totalling $35.8 domestically. Unfortunately, another spy flick, The 355, hasn’t done nearly as well, with it sinking like a stone to ninth place with a $700k gross as a poor domestic total of $14.17 million. Ouch.

Next week should be a quiet one, with the Super Bowl happening. Liam Neeson’s actioner Blacklight will probably open quietly, while the Jennifer Lopez/ Owen Wilson vehicle, Marry Me, will have its opening tapered by the simultaneous release on Peacock. All eyes will be on Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, which has suffered due to the disastrous career downswing of star Armie Hammer. Will he sink this Nile cruise? We’ll see next weekend!