‘Jackass Forever’ Tops ‘Moonfall’ With $1.7 Million Thursday

Paramount and MTV’s Jackass Forever earned a very promising $1.65 million in Thursday previews last night. That compares favorably with the last two installments, with the caveat being that A) Thursday or midnight shows were less mainstream a decade ago and B) Covid may skew the figures toward those who race out on as soon as possible and those who due to pandemic-specific (or weather-specific) variables won’t go at all. But as we’ve seen since at least A Quiet Place part II in May 2021 (which was tracking at a $60 million debut in March 2020 and then opened in May 2021 with a $57 million Memorial Day weekend launch), the films that were commercially viable before Covid have mostly remained as such.  

Paramount noted that snowstorms impacted the Thursday grosses, but that all shuttered theaters (over 300) should be back in business tonight. In terms of straight comparisons, Bad Grandpa (an unofficial sequel/spin-off from the core Jackass series) earned $1.4 million in October 2013 on the way to a $32 million domestic debut. While Jackass 3-D earned $2.5 million at midnight in October 2010 on the way to a sky-high $50 million Fri-Sun launch. If those are the parameters, then we are looking at an opening weekend between $31 million and $37 million, both of which would be great for a $10 million live-action comedy sequel. Alongside the ongoing popularity of the brand, we haven’t had a “big” live-action comedy in theaters since before Covid.  

A 7.5% split gives it $22 million, on par with the raw $22 million domestic debut of the first Jackass back in 2002. A 5.6% split gives it $29 million, tied with the launch of Jackass 2 in 2006. Nobody is expecting a debut on par with the 3-D sequel 11.5 years ago, but we could see a repeat of what Paramount pulled off with Scream, whereby the decade-later installment opened as well as the first two more successful sequels. Reviews are decent, as the kids who grew up with the franchise are now the adults in the room, and the outside world has so deteriorated, with many of the previous generation’s moral scolds now flirting with fascism, that the one-controversial prank show is now comparatively wholesome.  

Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall earned $700,000 in Thursday previews. The (expectedly) poorly reviewed disaster flick, starring Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry as astronauts trying to save the Earth as the moon comes hurtling toward us, is expected to perform no better than Dean Devlin’s Geostorm. That “Gerard Butler versus the weather” flick opened with just $13 million in late 2017 before earning $33 million domestic and $221 million worldwide on a $120 million budget. The independently financed $146 million sci-fi flick is being distributed domestically by Lionsgate. Once upon a time, Independence Day ($817 million in 1996), The Day After Tomorrow ($553 million in 2004) and 2012 ($791 million in 2009) were among the very highest grossing live-action originals of all time.