As the concerns over the COVID-19 Delta Variant linger, Disney’s Jungle Cruise had a nice opening weekend at the box office. The film debuted at #1 this weekend, opening to an estimated total of more than $90M globally, including $34.2M in domestic box office, $27.6M in international box office.
The film also added 30M in Disney+ Premier Access consumer spend globally. bringing the complete total to $90M. Jungle Cruise was tracking to make $25M to $30M domestically, so the numbers were better than expected. Jungle Cruise is playing in 4,310 theaters in North America, where moviegoing is still far from reaching pre-pandemic levels. Weekend revenue, for example, was down nearly 50 percent from the same frame in 2019.
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In a pre-pandemic world a $34.2M opening for a Disney event title would likely be deemed disappointing. However, we are in different times and Premier Access gave the film a nice boost in overall revenue.
“Jungle Cruise is the perfect summer adventure film, bringing a beloved theme park attraction to both the big screen and living rooms in a way that only Disney can. We remain focused on offering consumer choice during these unprecedented times, and it is clear that fans and families value the ability to make decisions on how they prefer to enjoy Disney’s best-in-class storytelling,” the company’s distribution said in a statement.
Disney hopes to make this their next big franchise, the same way Pirates of the Caribbean did in the 2000’s. Star Dwayne Johnson has already teased that he will be in meetings next week to discuss a sequel that would bring him and Emily Blunt back.
Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s Jungle Cruise is an adventure-filled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.
Jaume Collet-Serra directs the film, which also stars Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti. The producers are John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment; Dwayne Johnson, Hiram Garcia and Dany Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions; and Beau Flynn of Flynn Picture Co., with Scott Sheldon and Doug Merrifield serving as executive producers. The story is by John Norville & Josh Goldstein and Glenn Ficarra & John Requa, and the screenplay is by Michael Green and Glenn Ficarra & John Requa.