Seems the daredevils of Jackass are still amusing audiences 22 years after they first appeared on MTV, with their latest set of pranks finally pushing Spider-Man: No Way Home off the top of the box office.
Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O et al’s latest outing, Jackass Forever, rang up $2.5 million for Paramount from 331 screens; an average of $7,489 per screen.
In North America, the Jeff Tremaine-directed film also defeated Spidey, collecting $US23.3 million – a tidy sum for a title reported to have cost just $US10 million to produce.
Beyond its commercial success, Jackass Forever has also proved a hit with critics – it has an 85 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than any other film in the franchise.
Village Cinemas national programming manager Geoff Chard tells IF it was “pleasantly surprised” by the success of the film, predicting it will surpass the first and second films in the series.
Similarly, Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell was surprised to see large groups of older teens and young adults come out for the film “in droves”.
However, Wallis Cinemas David Simpson had expected the film to be a hit, telling IF; “It’s absurd entertainment – something audiences are longing for.” He found it particularly successful with groups of over 30s, who have otherwise been “distinctly absent” from cinemas.
By contrast, Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall had a soft launch for Roadshow, bowing in third position with just $744,833 from 328 screens.
Pro rata, that is very similar to the US/Canada result, where the Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry-starrer made just $US10 million. Overall it is a disappointing start for a film reported to have cost $US140 million.
“Moonfall played a bit older and appeared to be another casualty of the reluctance of some seniors to venture out, and subsequently was much softer than we had hoped,” says Dell.
Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast opened decently for Universal, coming in at fourth position with $606,432 from just 101 screens, an average of $5,721.
Chard notes the result should set the film up nicely for an expansion in a few weeks time “ahead of what we hope will be a large number of Academy Award nominations.” The film was nominated for six BAFTAs last week, won the Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award and a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.
Kristian Connelly, CEO of Melbourne’s Cinema Nova, also anticipates Wednesday’s Oscar nominations should boost numbers for Belfast, as well as Licorice Pizza, Parallel Mothers, Dune, West Side Story, Worst Person In The World and new opener Drive My Car.
Speaking broadly, Connelly says admissions are starting to improve following January’s Omicron surge, but he says “it’s just a genuine pity that the surge occurred during what is typically our busiest trading period of the year.”
“Our experience is that there are still cohorts that have yet to return to the cinema in a to the extent that others have, so the path to rebuilding will take time and sustained consumer confidence,” he tells IF.
Overall the top 20 titles mustered $8.2 million, up 6 per cent on the previous, according to Numero.
Of the holdovers, Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.1 million in its eighth frame for Sony, moving to $78.2 million.
With kids now back at school, Universal’s Sing 2 fell 49 per cent in its seventh with a result of $522,077 pushing the title to $18.4 million.
House of Gucci remains steady six weeks in, with the Universal drama collecting another $476,613 to move to $8.6 million, while Paramount’s Scream 5, in its fourth, is on $6 million after earning $430,957.
Disney’s The King’s Man is just shy of $5 million after making $310,003 in its fifth weekend, while Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife is edging towards $11 million thanks to $299,296 in its sixth.
Rounding out the top 10 was Paramount’s Clifford the Big Red Dog, which made $189,529 in its sixth frame to move to $5.1 million.