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That may explain why Paramount's go-for-broke
action comedy "Jackass Forever" triumphed at the domestic box
office while Roland Emmerich's disaster epic "Moonfall" turned
into an epic disaster.
"Jackass Forever," the fourth installment in the ongoing saga of
projectiles to the groin, collected $23 million from 3,604 North
American locations in its debut, landing on the higher end of
expectations. The latest "Jackass," starring Johnny Knoxville,
Steve-O, Wee Man and other daredevils from MTV days, had been
widely expected to win the weekend, but its victory is still
surprising and impressive because it has been some time since a
pure comedy has claimed the top spot on box office charts. In
catapulting to first place, "Jackass Forever" finally took down
reigning champion "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which has spent six
of the last seven weeks at No. 1.
"Jackass Forever" has been a (unexpected?) hit with critics,
notching a strong 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and "B+" CinemaScore
from audience members. Variety's chief film critic Owen
Gleiberman had positive things to say, writing in his review
that "Johnny Knoxville and company are now middle aged, but that
hasn't slowed their juvenile masochistic fervor." And with a $10
million production budget, "Jackass Forever" will be laughing
all the way to the bank.
"It's extremely hard to keep it fresh and funny for this long,
but 'Jackass' is doing that," says David A. Gross, who runs the
movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "At a
cost of only $10 million, the film is going to be very
profitable."
"Moonfall," the weekend's other new nationwide release, has less
to celebrate. The science-fiction catastrophe film crash-landed
on the lower end of projections, bringing in $10.1 million from
3,446 venues. Those ticket sales are potentially problematic
because "Moonfall" cost $140 million to produce, making it one
of the most expensive independent films in history. Commercial
sentiment may not help; moviegoers stuck the film with an
unenthusiastic "C+" CinemaScore. Unless the movie becomes a huge
hit overseas, "Moonfall" likely will not become a financial
success.
Emmerich, having turned "Independence Day," "The Day After
Tomorrow" and "2012" into commercial cash-cows, had once been
the premier chronicler of big-budget catastrophe. But in the
case of "Moonfall," which Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John
Bradley, Michael Pena and Donald Sutherland and centers on
efforts to prevent the moon from colliding with Earth, his
movies aren't offering the kind of stress-free escapism that
pandemic-fatigued audiences are looking for.
"At the moment, with the world coming apart in real time, who
wants to sit through a disaster story? It's more fun to laugh at
'Jackass,'" says Gross.
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