There’s a new game day for Jumanji 3. Sony Pictures said today that the fourth film in the longtime franchise is moving from its planned December 11 release date to Christmas Day — shifting from one week before the behemoth battle between Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday and Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Three to one week after it.
The pre-Christmas slot had been the launchpad for the previous Jumanji films.
Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan return to star Jumanji 3, which is a sequel to the 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level that grossed more than $800 million worldwide. Danny DeVito, Nick Jonas, Marin Hinkle, Bebe Neuwirth, Lamorne Morris and Rhys Darby also are returning for Jumanji 3, with Dan Hildebrand and Jack Jewkes joining the cast members.
Jake Kasdan is back to direct, having again co-written the script with Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. He also is producing the fourth pic alongside Matt Tolmach, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia.
For now, the only other pics slated to open on Christmas Day are Robert Eggers’ creature feature Werwulf from Focus Features, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Paramount’s Untitled John Tuggle Project about “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 1983 NFL Draft. Also set for the Christmas corridor is Paramount’s The Angry Birds Movie 3 on December 23.
The original 1995 Jumanji starred Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst and followed a group of kids who unleash a safari game into the reality of their hometown. But then Kasdan and Johnson had a way in to reboot the franchise — one that centered on a bunch of kids getting stuck in a video game with alternative-version avatars from who they are in real life. In 2017, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle went on to gross $962.5M worldwide, followed two years later by Jumanji: The Next Level. The trilogy has banked more than $2.02 billion around the globe.