Box Office: ‘Jackass Forever’ Eclipsing ‘Moonfall’ With Projected $20 Million Opening

Variety ^ | February 5, 2022 | J. Kim Murphy

[DoodleBob]

After a quiet January that saw one horror sequel and the same holiday releases putter out over several weeks, the domestic box office finally has a new leader. Paramount Pictures’ “Jackass Forever” is projected to earn $20.7 million in its opening, stunting on the weekend’s other wide release, “Moonfall.”

“Jackass Forever” earned $9.6 million on Friday across 3,604 locations. The document-of-bodily-harm-cum-heartwarming-reunion is landing near the top of its box office estimates, which projected the movie to take in around $15 million to $20 million in its opening weekend.

“Jackass Forever” sees the return of stuntmen Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man and many other MTV comrades, rounding up the old gang and consigning them to another gauntlet of painful pranks and good fun. Franchise director Jeff Tremaine also returns to helm the entry. Since the film only cost around $10 million to produce, opening day profits have practically put it in the black already.

The reception from general moviegoers has been largely positive, with the film landing a “B+” CinemaScore rating. And, in a reflection of how much a culture’s value system can shift over a 12-year span, “Jackass Forever” is an out-and-out critical darling, drawing a franchise-high 87% score on the critical aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. In Variety‘s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman hailed the outing as “a no-frills serial stunt movie that’s almost cozy in its depravity, even as the feats of dumbbell daring come off as more dangerous than ever.”

Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s “Moonfall” is crash-landing behind its competition. After earning $3.4 million in its opening day from 3,446 locations, the disaster epic could struggle to hit its initial three-day projections of $10 million to $12 million.

[Paal Gulli]

You got to give them three things.

One, they’re original. They create insane (and sometimes hilarious) stunts you’ve never seen the like of before.

Two, they don’t hurt nobody but themselves (and sometimes they get hurt pretty good in the process). They don’t ask anyone else to be the butt of their jokes.

Third, they’ve built a successful movie franchise from nothing, out of their own sweat and blood.

A bunch of hooligans doing on camera in light of day what they usually reserved for drunken Saturday nights, and from it creating an entirely new genre of film, something called “experimental video art.”

[1956tbyrd]

Jackass is one of three things:

1.Gross
2.Stupid
3.Hilarious