Jumanji Is Now Sony’s Second Highest-Grossing Movie Ever

Jumanji is expected to cross $900 million worldwide this weekend. That officially makes it Sony’s second-best performing movie of all time. Meanwhile, its domestic box office has just passed Spider-Man 2.


Nobody could ever have expected Jumanji‘s performance to be quite so strong. The film has exceeded every expectation, continuing to perform well in spite of strong competition. It opened just a week after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but still flourished. Incredibly, positive word-of-mouth led to the film’s second weekend actually outperforming its first. By New Year’s Day, Jumanji had snagged The Last Jedi‘s top spot at the domestic box office. Worldwide performance has been just as remarkable, and by the end of January it had become Sony’s best-performing movie not starring Spider-Man.


Incredibly, Deadline reports that the film is continuing to break records for Sony. The international estimate for the three-day weekend will leave Jumanji with a global box office take of $904.3 million (with a domestic total of $377.4 million). This will see it pass over Spider-Man 2 in the domestic market, and Spider-Man 3 worldwide. That’s all the more remarkable when one considers that this weekend saw the competition up the ante even more, with the release of Marvel’s record-breaking Black Panther.


Sony will be absolutely delighted with these estimates; they make Jumanji Sony’s second-best performing film in both global and domestic markets.

Worldwide, the film is beaten only by Skyfall (actually an MGM/Eon title, but distributed by Sony). Domestically, only the first Spider-Man film exceeds Jumanji. That’s an incredible achievement for Jumanji, making it one of Sony’s hottest properties of all time. It’s currently beating Spider-Man films, one of the most powerful franchises in the world today, and that fact has to be leaving Sony execs thrilled.


The question, of course, is whether or not this success can be repeated; Sony has already greenlit a sequel. In a statement of their confidence in the film, they’re eyeing a December 2019 release date – again placing Jumanji against Star Wars. Promisingly, Jumanji writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg have signed up for the sequel. Director Jake Kasdan is also expected to return. That certainly bodes well, given that they proved to be such an effective team the first time around.


Meanwhile, Jumanji‘s story is not yet over by any means. The film is performing well in Asian markets, but still has yet to release in Japan. It’s highly unlikely that the movie will ultimately break $1 billion – not with Black Panther now competing in many markets – but it will certainly continue to rake in the profits for Sony.