‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ Advancing To $52M+ Opening; ‘Richard Jewell’ & ‘Black Christmas’ Earn Lumps Of Coal
JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL: RelishMix screams joyfully that Jumanji: The Next Level had an exceptional Social Media Universe of 788.4M. The typical Family/Live action movie has an SMU of 154.9M, and the sequel’s followers far exceed the level of Welcome to the Jungle, which had a total reach of 568M by opening weekend. Next Level‘s universe is comprised of 130.4M Facebook Fans, 21.9M Facebook video views, 78.7M Twitter Followers, an enormous 264.3M YouTube views and 293.1M Instagram Followers.
Also, social media activity was very healthy for Next Level with a viral video rate of 22:1 to the genre’s average of 13:1. Prior to opening, the average daily YouTube views for Next Level’s top clips were a whopping 84.1K, far ahead of the genre average 15.9K. “And, that’s across multiple clips – not just the videos with support from Sony on this platform,” reports RelishMix.
With Dwayne Johnson and Hart together counting well over 377M followers, Sony “capitalized upon the film’s super-social cast” says RelishMix, with the studio “arranging a ton of social support for Next Level‘s take on the storyline. Credit to Sony for wrangling the crew – many of which returned from the 2017 film – and producing entertaining spots the closer opening came.” They were literally everywhere and anywhere including parody sketches such as a Thanksgiving bit with the cast, a Wedding Crashers take off between Johnson and Danny DeVito, and the whole gang singing “Jumanji Bells”. See the latter below which was part of Hulu’s Seasons Streaming:
“There is a lot to like with Next Level, starting with the returning cast. The Rock, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan are all adored by family-friendly moviegoing audiences. And, for the most part, Fans are liking the change of pace with the ‘something’s wrong with the game’ storyline. Even Ozzy Osbourne’s song featured in the trailer is getting some call-outs. All in all, the discussion leans heavily positive for a sequel that had such an entertaining predecessor – not to mention all the super-social cast returning and some new faces like Awkwafina added, too,” says social media monitor RelishMix which has a pulse on what’s working and what’s not at the multiplex.
RICHARD JEWELL: Says RelishMix, “Social discussion for this latest Eastwood drama is politely and diplomatically described as heated. There are those who feel like Eastwood’s films are masterpieces of dramatic storytelling. But, there is plenty of impassioned discussion over the greater topic of the media in this country, its power and Jewell as the obvious example for many comments. Negative discussion ranges from interesting points and counter-points to outright disgraceful language and vitriol far too common in our current social environment. The bottom line is that, like other controversial movies, much of the convo specific to the film is mixed – and a good percentage of the film’s total volume concerns topics tangential to Jewell.”
BLACK CHRISTMAS: After cutting a great trailer for Black Christmas, (viral rate was high according to RelishMix at 28:1, above the horror genre’s 25:1 viral rate) how the hell did this film burn up like a Christmas tree? Some prestige critics from Variety and NY Times enjoyed the movie with others applauding the pic’s “skewering of toxic masculinity, the white male literary canon, rape culture” as IndieWire praised. But overall this reboot of the 1974 movie and 2006 Dimension movie in which the sorority girls vs. the guys is being knifed in the back by moviegoers with an awful D+ Cinemascore and 1 1/2 stars and a 38% definite recommend on PostTrak. Some genre critics (over RT here is a bad 43% Rotten) complain that the first first hour of this 92 movie is a drag, with all of the scares falling flat. RelishMix screams, “The general feeling is that the trailer ruins the film by giving away too much and revealing the very twist of the movie related to a cult.”