by Alex Cohen ’20

In 2017, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” rebooted the 1995 classic starring Robin Williams and racked in $962 million globally and $404.5 million domestically. It was the fifth biggest movie in the world and the fourth biggest movie in North America that year. With such great success, it was only a matter of time before Sony made a sequel. Last week its sequel “Jumanji: The Next Level” was released. And it delivered. Big time.

Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level” exploded at the box office with a $60.1 million domestic opening weekend, 64 percent increase over “Welcome to the Jungle’s” three-day opening and the highest opening ever in December for a Sony film. The action-packed and hilarious film featuring legendary actors, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Danny Devito, has once again sparked the adventure and imagination in its audiences’ hearts by getting sucked back into the video game. While in game, real life conflicts, along with in-game stresses, affect their journey to complete the next level. If they don’t complete it, they are stuck in the game forever.

The movie, which has already attained an incredible amount of success, will reach even greater heights when adding in the power of Christmas Day and holiday break. At first there was nothing too special about the debut of its prequel which pulled in only $36.2 million between Dec. 22-24. However when you added Christmas Day to the mix? “Welcome to the Jungle’s” domestic total jumped to $55.3 million. Then when you included its following four-day holiday weekend? It added another $66.3 million. By the end of its 23-week run? It had a grand total of $404.5 million domestically and $962 million globally. This is the type of success people are predicting for “Jumanji: The Next Level” during the holidays and thereafter. Experts predict that it will reach $500 million dollars domestically and make $1 billion dollars globally by the end of its run. Wow! 

“Jumanji: The Next Level”  rated PG-13 is entertaining for a variety of age groups. The movie is comical and so engaging that viewers feel as though they are a part of the video game journey. There is plenty of time to kill during this year’s holiday break, have some fun with family and friends and go see “Jumanji: The Next Level.”

Grade: A