10 Huge Movie Box Office Hits NOBODY Saw Coming

If you asked just about anyone how the belated Jumanji sequel/soft-reboot-in-disguise would perform even just a month before its December 2017 release, there was a pronounced air of negativity, with most expecting it to pull mediocre-at-best numbers.

Even if you ignored the uninspired marketing, there was serious hand-wringing about the film's mere existence following the passing of original star Robin Williams, and above all else, it was releasing just five days after inevitable box office monster Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Yet despite so much working against it, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle went on to make $995.3 million, edging out Spider-Man: Homecoming to become the fifth-highest-grossing film of that year.

There are a few reasons for Jumanji's unexpected success. First and foremost, it's a surprisingly good movie that was well-received by critics and general audiences alike. It's also been theorised that the polarising response to Star Wars: The Last Jedi did it a world of favours.

For though The Last Jedi was a major success by any logical metric, its $1.334 billion haul was still a massive $700+ million drop from The Force Awakens' eye-watering $2.071 billion cume. Much of that shortfall evidently benefitted Jumanji, which to casual moviegoers likely seemed to be the safer of the two options.