BOX OFFICE

'Jackass Forever,' 'Moonfall' land in top two spots

A mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know It in “Moonfall.”
A mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know It in “Moonfall.”

Paramount Pictures' "Jackass Forever" and Lionsgate's "Moonfall" nabbed the top two spots at the domestic box office last weekend, grossing $23.5 million and $10 million, respectively, while kicking the mighty "Spider-Man: No Way Home" to third place.

The low-budget franchise title "Jackass Forever" exceeded expectations -- which was expected to garner about $15 million -- while pricey disaster epic "Moonfall" performed about as poorly as predicted, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.

The two films could inject some energy into theaters after a sluggish start to the year. No new movies were released in the final week of January, something that has happened only one other time since March, according to Comscore. "The ideal scenario for theaters is when momentum is maintained week to week as audiences migrate from one blockbuster to the next and keep the box-office gravy train rolling," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

"Films that appeal to a younger audience have a much bigger potential for success (during the pandemic)," Dergarabedian said. "And the young male audience really seems like they want to go to the movie theater."

Directed by Jeff Tremaine, the grand finale of the "Jackass" saga sees the titular team of pranksters reunite after several years for one last chaotic adventure. The unscripted romp scored a superb 86% on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and a B-plus rating from audiences polled by CinemaScore.

Helmed by Roland Emmerich, "Moonfall" stars Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson as a pair of NASA astronauts on an emergency mission to prevent the moon from colliding with Earth. The space drama received an underwhelming 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a C-plus grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore. It is arguably targeted more at overseas audiences than domestic, but its international performance remains to be seen.

With the exception of Paramount's "Scream" -- which briefly unseated "Spider-Man" upon its debut -- the latest installment in the web-slinging franchise has previously dominated the domestic box office since December.

"Spider-Man," the Marvel/Columbia blockbuster, picked up $9.6 million in its eighth weekend for a North American cumulative of $749 million, while "Scream" landed at No. 4 in its fourth weekend with $4.7 million for a North American cumulative of $68.9 million. Rounding out the top five is Universal Pictures' "Sing 2," which collected $4.2 million in its seventh weekend for a North American cumulative of $139.6 million.

In art house releases, Neon debuted "The Worst Person in the World" on four screens last weekend with receipts of $135,042. The Norwegian film about a young woman finding herself received  an Oscar nomination (which was announced Tuesday), topped many critics' best of lists in 2021, and has gotten a fair share of celebrity endorsements (from Nancy Meyers to Paul Thomas Anderson). Its per-theater average ($33,760) is the highest of 2022. Neon will add theaters in the coming weeks.

Though still far from a normal, pre-pandemic weekend, it did break a bit of a lull that will likely continue until "The Batman" opens March 4.

"It's not the biggest weekend ever but considering how quiet the marketplace has been, it's very welcome," Dergarabedian said.

Opening in wide release this weekend ahead of the Valentine's Day holiday are 20th Century Studios' Agatha Christie murder mystery remake "Death on the Nile," Universal Pictures' romantic comedy "Marry Me" (which will also stream day-and-date on Peacock) and Briarcliff Entertainment's action thriller "Blacklight."

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