

Going up against a “Star Wars” movie was dangerous because the Skywalker franchise is normally expected to suck the oxygen out of the market for competing movies. The main problem was the competition: Walt Disney Co.’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” was scheduled for a Dec. But after seeing footage from the first two weeks of shooting, Rothman wanted to set the release for Christmastime, when families are more apt to go to the movies together, he said. Sony originally planned to unleash the picture during the summer, normally harvest time for Hollywood blockbusters. “Jumanji’s” release date was a big risk, too.

“That’s what the movie business used to be based on, and this film is a throwback to that.” “People forget that, in the movie business, big ideas can be as valuable as preexisting intellectual property,” Rothman said. In the new “Jumanji,” a group of teens stumble upon an old-school video game system that turns them into avatars based on characters they select for a jungle mission - played by Johnson, Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan. Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony’s Motion Picture Group, said in an interview that the movie is succeeding not because of its brand name, but because audiences are responding to its fresh, compelling premise. Reviews have been 76% positive, according to aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which has been an increasingly influential resource for moviegoers.
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Also, unlike many reboots, critics generally liked the movie, praising its video-game-themed update of the original concept. Those included the star power of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, two of the biggest box office draws working in Hollywood, and an all-ages storyline that made it ideally suited for viewing by parents and their kids during a month when there’s a lack of popular family films in theaters.

“Hollywood does try too much to reboot old brands, and ‘Jumanji’ was not at the top of the list of movies that needed to be rebooted,” Pandya said.īut “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” produced by Matt Tolmach and William Teitler and shot in Hawaii and Georgia, had multiple factors in its favor. Just look at 20th Century Fox’s “Independence Day: Resurgence” and Sony’s own “Ghostbusters.” But it has little name recognition overseas, and reboots of older properties have resulted in many costly flops for studios. The 1995 original about a board game that comes to life, starring the late Robin Williams, grossed $263 million globally, and is viewed nostalgically by many people who saw it at the time.
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“Jumanji’s” breakout performance represents a much-needed boost for Sony, which has struggled for years to compete with other studios because of a lack of major franchises, other than “Spider-Man.” The Culver City film company, owned by Tokyo-based Sony Corp., ranked fifth among the studios last year in terms of domestic box office market share, thanks to disappointments such as “The Dark Tower” and “Flatliners.” Sony has undergone a series of management changes since the 2014 cyberattack on the studio. 20 release, roaring to life with $768 million in worldwide ticket sales, making it one of the biggest box office surprises in the last year. The production, which cost $90 million after factoring in tax incentives, has become a runaway box office success since its Dec. Nonetheless, Sony Pictures’ gamble on “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” has paid off handsomely. After all, the original film came out more than two decades ago, reboots of old franchises have proved increasingly risky, and the competition was formidable: the studio scheduled it to compete directly with box office juggernaut “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Sony Pictures executives had ample reason to pass on another “Jumanji” movie.
