‘Jungle Cruise’ sails atop box office despite COVID concerns

Despite growing concerns over the delta variant, “Jungle Cruise” still drew moviegoers out to theaters during the film’s opening weekend to sail atop the North American box office

LOS ANGELES -- Despite growing concerns over the delta variant, “Jungle Cruise” still drew moviegoers out to theaters during the film’s opening weekend to sail atop the North American box office. The Disney film starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt exceeded expectations by pulling in more than $34.1 million over the weekend. The adventure movie was estimated to open with around $25 million to $30 million domestically, but it outpaced those numbers despite the surge in the coronavirus cases. Globally, “Jungle Cruise” brought in a total of $90 million, including $27.6 million in the international box office and more than $30 million from Disney Plus. “In this pandemic-challenged market place, it overperformed,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It didn't really seem like the streaming component hurt the box office in any significant way. The movie theater is still showing its resilience and appeal to moviegoers despite the fact that there's so much news everyday, most of it not moving in the right direction, in terms of the pandemic.”