Two years ago, the big-screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street opened to rave reviews and amassed an impressive $201 million at the box office, off a $45 million budget. A sequel was inevitable, and now here we are two years later with the release of 22 Jump Street. Same main stars - Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, plus Ice Cube's back in a supporting role - plus same directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (who also directed The LEGO Movie), with Michael Bacall back on screenwriting duties alongside Oren Uziel and Rodney Rothman.
With most of the key players returning, then, and in light of how beloved the first entry was, the chances for a repeat performance in terms of quality and financial boom seemed pretty high. We'll find out whether the box office fates are in its favor in a few days, but I can tell you that the other half of that equation played out as expected - 22 Jump Street is once again a hilarious, entertaining mix of irreverent humor and powerful chemistry between its two leads.
In light of the current box office leaders mostly being holdovers that won't dominate attendance figures this weekend (Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men: Days of Future Past being the major ones), plus one fresher holdover likely front-loaded enough last weekend (The Fault in Our Stars) to leave plenty of elbow room, it looks like 22 Jump Street should open big, with Fandango reporting major advance interest based on their indicators.
Last weekend in North America saw a rise of maybe 9% for the top-ten films, compared to last year's domestic figures for the comparative weekend. If we see only an even hold next weekend compared to 2013, then the holdover films might do in the roughly $70 million range (depending on how well a few particular films hold), leaving 22 Jump Street and How To Train Your Dragon 2 to split perhaps $120 million, without any bump over last year's weekend totals. Odds favor How To Train Your Dragon 2 as the film that tops the weekend charts. I'd say 22 Jump Street should open anywhere from a low-end $50 million, to as high as perhaps $60 million, with somewhere in between as it's most likely opening figure. Again, this is all domestic box office, mind you.
Long-term, the prospects should be good for the film, as it's enjoying strong critical reception so far and enormous buzz among the target demographics. It will play well to young female audiences as well as young male audiences, and plenty of older viewers will show up. Expect it to end up north of the first film's $200 million global total, as foreign audiences have shown an increasing appetite for comedies of late (particularly the R-rated variety), while the first film's popularity coupled with the likely solid buzz from viewers should ensure a good domestic run as well. If it opens in the $55 million range at home and manages to only play 3/4 as leggy as the freshmen outing, that puts it north of $150 million domestic. Add in a foreign rise of only 10% over last time, and you get about $220 million worldwide for a final tally. It might play slightly weaker or stronger, so the zone seems to be from $210 million to maybe $250 million (the latter if it manages to become a big hit overseas).
Why do I think the buzz will be good enough to grant it legs for a comfortable sprint? Because 22 Jump Street takes what worked in the first film and duplicates it, but in a way that's at once self-aware to the point of milking lots of laughs from the repeat elements, yet actually does find an entirely different spin on that material, while introducing plenty of new bits as well. While it might not have taken advantage of certain openings for satirizing college humor films, it does in fact not-so-subtly skewer a few common higher learning cliches, and the recipe of Tatum and Hill goofing around together plus the overall quality of jokes is so entertaining that it can't help but succeed.
Before I delve into discussing what this film is really about and why you should appreciate it as far more than just another hilarious buddy cop movie, let me take time to praise how funny it is and how it does work on the level of another buddy cop movie. There are as many great laughs here as there were last time, and few of them are really about the same things as before. A few particularly good recurring jokes - the film's sequel status compared to the 'sequel' status of their mission, a college roommate constantly present at the most inappropriate times to deliver biting insults, a comparison between different sorts of male relationships (which I'll discuss at length shortly, when I get to my more serious assessment of the film's story), and a subplot about a romantic relationship that is suddenly revealed to have far-reaching implications outside of college - all work well, and it becomes a fun game waiting for them to pop up again.
Bottom line is, if you liked or loved the first film, you're probably going to like this one and might even love it. It doesn't have the pure surprise factor that came from watching the first film and being amazed at how unexpectedly great it was, and it's not stretching the comedy itself to any new heights. But the previous heights were good enough that just managing to be as funny again is a victory. However, if it doesn't find any particularly greatly inventive new comedic approaches, it definitely finds stronger character moments and deeper themes about friendship and social conventions. The first film had a romance that was central to the story. Well, this time around Hill once again gets a girlfriend for a while, but that's not the story's main 'love' angle. Not by a long shot.
Which brings me to the more serious part of my review. I hate to give such short attention to the humor, but there's not much more I need to say other than 'it's as funny as last time, and has several great recurring gags.' I'd rather take time to get into what's really behind this story, because for a raunchy comedy sequel that makes a lot of fun of itself for being a raunchy comedy sequel, there's more to it than you might expect.
The first film allowed Jonah Hill the chance to relive high school as 'popular for being himself,' while Channing Tatum was forced to relive high school as 'unpopular for not valuing all of the things Hill and his friends represent.' Being himself was good for Hill and the school environment was changed for the better, and he didn't have to ultimately face and reject the person he used to be. Hill found affirmation, in other words, and Tatum learned what it's like to be an outcast. But none of that directly confronted the previous order of things to reveal directly, in context, all of what's wrong with that previous social order. This time, the film does - in spades.
Because if high school has in many ways changed to favor irreverent personalities and learning and the arts (due to younger people having broader horizons as the Internet exposes them to a much larger world), college has in many ways remained stuck in the same problematic space for a lot of the same problematic reasons that always existed. Partying, sports, sex, more partying, and Greek life are still dominant aspects of college culture, particularly for new students. And the film is less interested in engaging in larger social commentary about all of those things, and more interested in showing us how these two characters react when dropped into the middle of it.
Tatum embraces it, seeing an opportunity to return to his days of popularity and 'jock life,' while Hill initially fears he's reliving his old high school days all over again. That is, until Hill falls in with people who embrace him and like him, so that lack of popularity isn't really an issue - it's lack of access to the exclusivity of Greek life and athletics, neither of which Hill even likes in the first place. So, if lack of access doesn't even matter because he doesn't value those things, then what is actually upsetting Hill is the fracturing of his relationship with Tatum, of course. Their relationship is undermined by Tatum's reintroduction to a past that he never addressed in the first film, all he did was understand how it felt from the 'other side,' so to speak, without questioning his old values. Now, his arc is entirely about questioning those values.
Hill, meanwhile, has an arc that is entirely about understanding the disconnect his best friend is facing and learning to help him through it, to understand that it's an unraveling of everything Tatum used to be and thought he cared about, and to be as willing to take some of his own risks as Tatum has to be in overturning his values and dreams. If Hill enjoyed a first film focused on him finding affirmation of his self, Tatum this time is the focus, and there's nothing affirming about it whatsoever.
Post By http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/06/12/review-22-jump-street-delivers-laughs-but-also-something-more/
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