’22 Jump Street’ Being Re-Released Oct. 24th Only Days Before Home Entertainment Launch
The Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill buddy comedy hit 22 Jump Street is being re-released by Sony on October 24, in a distribution and marketing move that is kind of odd, given that the film is now at $191M domestically and $137.4M internationally. Usually this is done to reach some kind of box office benchmark, but given that it’s already at $328.4M worldwide and is unlikely to make another $9M domestically, it has us scratching our heads. The DVD comes out on October 28th so why would you re-release it into theaters four days before?
According to one Sony exec, “It’s essentially a promotional run, a chance for audiences to see the No. 1 comedy of the year on the big screen before its home entertainment launch. Not trying to hit any milestone per se. Always good for audiences to enjoy together before home entertainment kicks in.” Okaaay. I still don’t get it. Waiting to see how many theaters they will get, probably the dollar ones at this point. They expect to have it in 400 theaters.
The film will bow in a weekend that also will feature the Keanu Reeves actioner, John Wick, the Universal horror film Ouija and the expansion of the wonderfully directed and written film from Ted Melfi and TWC, St. Vincent (Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy and Naomi Watts).
So let’s revisit the budget on 22 Jump Street as maybe they are trying to squeeze out some hopeful gross from their summer release? I don’t get it. I mean, this picture launched on June 13 (June 12 if you count late nights) and with a $57M opening became the second-highest opening for an R-rated film in history behind Hangover II ($85.9M).
Sony said the budget was $50M, however, that wasn’t exactly accurate. We checked and the initial budget was north of $80M before they got a $16M to $17M production incentive from filming in Louisiana and Puerto Rico, its budget ended up — so let’s say around $65M+. Add that same roughly $65M for marketing and distribution costs here and abroad and then you must figure in participations between stars Hill and Tatum as well as the filmmakers. It had a higher budget than the first, but it also had a higher take at the box office by far. In fact, it did what a sequel was supposed to do — open bigger than the first installment. Overseas, its rollout started before the World Cup in the UK and still had a big opening there.
This one was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and produced by Neil Moritz.
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