‘Jackass Forever’ Tops With $9.6M As ‘Moonfall’ Crumbles

Courage now. Truth always. Jackass Forever!

Paramount and MTV’s Jackass Forever topped the Friday box office with $9.6 million. Comparatively speaking, and not accounting for inflation, Jackass: The Movie seized $9.7 million on Friday in October 2002 toward a $22 million Fri-Sun debut. Two weeks later, Universal’s R-rated Eminem flick 8 Mile would open with $51 million. Jackass Number Two grossed $11.8 million on Friday in September 2006 toward a $29 million debut, while Jackass 3-D earned $22 million on its first day toward a jaw-dropping $50 million Fri-Sun launch in October 2010. That was one week before horror breakout sequel Paranormal Activity 2 opened with $40 million. Bad Grandpa earned $12.6 million on Friday in October 2013 for a $32 million opening weekend. Three weeks later, The Best Man Holiday would open with $30 million. People really used to see all kinds of movies in theaters…  

The theatrical industry has obviously 180-ed over the last decade, with the folks who once saw a movie just to see a movie opting for streaming, and once popular franchises fighting for crumbs amid at-home competition. Jackass Forever must deal with a world where, even more so than in 2010 and 2013, audiences can catch up with the earlier four movies, watch old episodes of the show, or find their favorite sketches at the touch of a button. Once upon a time, a Jackass movie was itself a big deal and a declaration that a property is considered worthy. Now, often, a property gets a movie because it is popular elsewhere, a kind of cart before the horse mentality. That’s why the recent minor-league success of Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers and the breakout $33 million debut of Downton Abbey were so special. 

Presuming the Johnny Knoxville-led “legacy sequel” legs like its peers, we’re looking at a $21-$24 million opening weekend. While there was hope that strong reviews, decent buzz (a B+ from Cinemascore, the near-total lack of “big” live-action theatrical comedies over the last two years and a generational coronation for the franchise (as kids who grew up with the merry pranksters are now the adults in the room) would lead to a breakout opening. Instead, what we have is something closer to a “successful disappointment.” For those who need a refresher, a “successful disappointment” is when a film opens amid our current pandemic with grosses that approximate what it might have earned had it underwhelmed in non-Covid times. That doesn’t mean Jackass Forever is a bomb because it’s not. It’s a $10 million movie that should have a decent VOD/DVD lifespan while being of eventual value to Paramount+.  

Let the moon fall. When it crumbles, we will stand tall and face it all together! At Moonfall…

In other “back in my day” news, Roland Emmerich’s latest big-budget sci-fi flick, Moonfall, landed with a thud. Centropolis’ poorly reviewed disaster epic, about two NASA astronauts (Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson) flying into space to stop the moon from crashing into earth, earned just $3.4 million yesterday. That positions it for a miserable $9.5 million Fri-Sun debut. Lionsgate is only on the hook for marketing and domestic distribution expenses, but we’ll see if any overseas distributors get any money from their share of the independently financed $146 million movie. To be fair, this is only somewhat worse than the $13 million debut of Dean Devlin’s Geostorm in September of 2017. And the alleged “marquee director” value of Emmerich and/or Devlin aside, $9.6 million is only slightly worse (inflation aside) than the $12 million debut of The Core (which, by the way, is glorious), in early 2003.  

Nonetheless, in a different era, a star-driven Roland Emmerich-helmed disaster flick would be a surefire A-level theatrical attraction. Independence Day ($817 million in 1996) stands alongside Terminator 2, Jurassic Park and Titanic as the definitive 90’s era global blockbuster. The Day After Tomorrow ($552 million in 2004) and 2012 ($769 million in 2009) were two of the four biggest-grossing live-action originals of the 2000’s alongside James Cameron’s Avatar ($2.8 billion in 2009) and Will Smith’s Hancock ($624 million in 2008). Alas, it’s not like Emmerich has been on a winning streak. I’ll cut anyone who denies White House Down is the second-best Die Hard knock-off after Speed, and I’ll go to my grave arguing that The Patriot is at least as good as Gladiator, but neither film was an acclaimed hit and I cannot defend the likes of Godzilla, 10,000 BC or Independence Day Resurgence. 

The mere promise of larger-than-life disaster spectacle was once enough to sell tickets. Marquee characters are where it’s at, which is what most filmmakers mean when they lash out at the MCU or superhero movies. It wasn’t so long ago that a big-budget outer space adventure like Gravity, The Martian or even Passengers could pack them in. But Ad Astra suggests otherwise. In our current new streaming centric era, Moonfall needed more movie stars and better reviews. When even the positive critiques argue that it’s so bad that it’s good, well, as Snakes on a Plane can attest, that’s not helping. When Moonfall has lousy reviews, a C+ from Cinemascore and frankly often resembles the size and scale of a direct-to-VOD disaster flick, audiences can now rent The Core or seek out China’s disaster epic The Wandering Earth on Netflix while they wait for Moonfall on PVOD.