Why ‘Jumanji: Open World’ Could Be Sitting on Its Biggest Christmas Gift Yet

Few franchises have turned a board game about a jungle into a holiday-season habit the way ‘Jumanji’ has. Sony’s adventure series has built a reputation for landing in theaters right around the December rush and sticking around long after the wrapping paper is gone. The next entry, ‘Jumanji: Open World,’ is billed as the fifth and final installment in the film series.

The road to this finale hasn’t been entirely smooth. The film was originally scheduled for December 11, 2026, before its release date was pushed back by two weeks to Christmas Day. Its full title was revealed at CinemaCon in April 2026, and filming wrapped on March 30, 2026.

Now, a fresh piece of box office chatter is giving fans another reason to circle the date. DiscussingFilm posted on X that ‘Jumanji: Open World’ is tracking to open bigger than its predecessor, ‘Jumanji: The Next Level.’ The post also noted that the first 2 ‘Jumanji’ sequels have earned a combined $1.76 billion worldwide, though it did not cite specific tracking figures.

That claim is a bold one, because ‘The Next Level’ set a high bar. The 2019 film grossed an estimated $60.1 million in its domestic opening weekend. The final tally came in at $59,251,543, compared with $36,169,328 for ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.’

It also blew past expectations at the time. Variety reported that the film was targeting an opening between $45 million and $55 million, while Sony was projecting a $35 million start. The Numbers noted it was 66% higher than ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ though that earlier film opened on a Wednesday, so the comparison wasn’t exactly fair.

The $1.76 billion figure in the post checks out as well. Koimoi reports that the combined global totals of the 2 previous films add up to $1.76 billion, and that ‘Open World’ needs less than $250 million to push the franchise past $2 billion. ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ alone earned $961.6 million worldwide, while ‘The Next Level’ finished at roughly $795 million.

Beating that opening won’t be a given, but the setup works in the film’s favor. A Christmas Day debut is built for family audiences, and the cast is intact. Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan are all reunited for the final installment.

The story hook may help too. The trailer flips the usual setup, so instead of the players going into the game, the game comes to the real world. That is a natural evolution from ‘The Next Level,’ which ended with a herd of ostriches appearing outside a restaurant, leaving the characters stunned to see creatures from Jumanji loose in the real world. The ostriches on the poster in DiscussingFilm’s post are a fitting callback.

Of course, the holiday calendar is crowded. The film is set to arrive a week after ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘Dune 3,’ which could affect screen counts and premium format availability. Sony’s marketing promises premium formats, though the specific ones haven’t been announced.

There’s also the matter of how openings are measured. One prediction market has set a line at $55 million for the 3-day domestic opening from Friday, December 25 through Sunday, December 27. That is a betting line rather than official tracking, but it shows how closely the numbers are being watched.

Tracking is only a snapshot, and holiday releases are famously hard to forecast. If ‘Open World’ does clear the roughly $60 million mark, it would send the ‘Jumanji’ era out on a high. Fans will find out soon enough, with the final game set to begin on Christmas Day.