How Jungle Cruise’s Box Office Compares To The Rock’s Other Franchises

Disney’s Jungle Cruise opened to a surprisingly successful domestic box office weekend, bringing in $34.2 million, but how does it stand up to The Rock’s other franchise hauls? The new film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Skipper Frank Wolff, A Quiet Place’s Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton, and Jack Whitehall as Lily’s younger brother and hesitant assistant McGregor Houghton. Lily recruits Frank to guide them down the treacherous Amazon river and through the arduous jungle as they search for the mystical Tree of Life, rumored to have healing powers that would greatly benefit modern medicine.

Jungle Cruise is Disney’s new adaptation of one of its popular theme park rides like Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion, with the new film taking from the adventure ride of the same name. With Pirates of the Caribbean slowing down in popularity after the controversy over Captain Jack Sparrow’s Johnny Depp, Disney desperately needs a new historical adventure franchise to take over the reins. Jungle Cruise is already proving to be a hit with theaters and streaming, so Disney may have just found its new Pirates Of The Caribbean theme park ride movie replacement.

The Rock’s film career has spanned over 20 years, going from a well-known professional wrestler to one of the most billable actors in Hollywood. Johnson began in supporting roles in franchises and action movies before moving into lead roles in dramas and comedies, eventually helming his own blockbuster franchises, the latest of which being Jungle Cruise. In reflecting on the franchise successes of The Rock’s career, it’s worth taking a look at how Jungle Cruise stands up to his prior box office earnings.

How Jungle Cruise’s Box Office Compares To His Fast & Furious Movies

Although Fast & Furious was a booming franchise since its debut film in 2001, The Rock joining the cast helped bring in more audiences with his contributions. In Fast Five, The Rock was introduced as DSS Agent Luke Hobbs, originally tasked with tracking down and apprehending Dom Toretto’s crew. From then on, The Rock has portrayed Hobbs in the next four Fast & Furious movies, including his own spin-off Hobbs & Shaw, though didn’t return for 2021’s F9.

Fast Five, The Rock’s first entry, brought in $109.6 million in its opening weekend. Keeping up with Fast Five’s momentum, Fast & Furious 6, earned a $97.3 million opening box office haul. Although much of Furious 7’s success is due to the film being Paul Walker’s last feature after tragically passing away before its release, it ended up becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time, racking up an incredible $147.1 million in its opening weekend. The franchise’s next film, The Fate and the Furious, still had The Rock and Vin Diesel at its helm to gross $98.8 million at the box office opening weekend. Although not a disappointment by any means for The Rock’s spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw’s box office opening earned only $60 million.

Fast & Furious is a two-decade money-making franchise that makes it difficult to compare to Jungle Cruise, a family-friendly Disney franchise just standing up on its feet. Since the least performing film in The Rock’s contributions to Fast & Furious was Hobbs & Shaw with a $60 million opening weekend, Jungle Cruise bringing in a little more than half that number in the middle of a pandemic still bodes well. If Jungle Cruise’s momentum picks up in subsequent years with the pandemic subsided, it may not reach Fast & Furious’s speed, but could still perform competitively.

How Jungle Cruise’s Box Office Compares To Jumanji

As The Rock’s first franchise almost completely helmed by his own stardom, Jumanji performed extremely well in the box office. The film series takes from 1995’s film of the same name, this time modernizing it in a video-game context with more action and adventure. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, earned $36 million in its opening weekend, which is on par with Jungle Cruise’s $34 million. The sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level, outperformed both of its predecessors with a $59.2 million opening. Considering Jungle Cruise also performed well on streaming, bringing in another $30 million in its opening weekend, its performance so far parallels Jumanji’s track.

How Jungle Cruise’s Box Office Compares To The Rock’s Other Franchises

In The Rock’s debut film role, he joined The Mummy, one of the most successful adventure franchises of all time, for its first sequel. Considering Jungle Cruise is heavily inspired by The Mummy, it’s no surprise The Rock starred in two of the latter’s films. The Mummy Returns ended up bringing in $68 million in its opening box office weekend, outperforming the original film. The Rock then starred as the lead in The Scorpion King, a prequel to The Mummy about his eponymous character, which only earned $36 million in its opening weekend.

Again taking over in a Brendan Fraser-led franchise, The Rock joined the Journey to the Center of the Earth movies in the second installment. Another action-adventure series, The Rock helmed Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which brought in $27.3 million from its box office opening weekend. Jungle Cruise already performing higher than the 2012 established franchise film means it will likely have a longer future than the Journey films.

With Snake Eyes revamping the G.I. Joe film franchise, it’s an apt time to look back on Dwayne Johnson’s success in the second installment, G.I. Joe: Retaliation. The film earned $40 million in its opening box office weekend, much higher than Snake Eyes at $13.3 million, although the latter is being released during a pandemic.

Why Jungle Cruise’s Box Office Is Good For The Rock

Although difficult to compare The Rock’s franchise box office earnings for the films he joined after the series was established compared to a brand new Jungle Cruise franchise, the contrasts seem to prove Jungle Cruise is headed on the right track. Earning $32 million at the box office in an opening weekend almost always signals success for a film, especially a family-friendly Disney movie opening simultaneously for streaming on Disney+. Although many of his other films earned around $100 million in their opening weekends, some of his more recent successful franchises brought in about the same as Jungle Cruise without a pandemic.

Bringing in over $30 million in theater box office revenue and another $30 million from streaming are great news for The Rock, meaning his fun persona is enough to bring families out of their homes and into theaters during a pandemic. Without the pandemic, Jungle Cruise likely would have brought in significantly higher revenue, so earning an opening of $32 million against a projected haul of $25 million proves The Rock’s power at the box office.

About The Author

Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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