A Major Blockbuster Just Quietly Moved Its Release Date

A big blockbuster is getting wrapped up as a Christmas present. Sony announced on Tuesday that Jumanji 3 was getting pushed back from its original release date and would instead open in theaters on December 25. 

The third installment in the rebooted continuation of the '90s classic about a supernatural board game starring Robin Williams, Jumanji 3 stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan. While the plot of the upcoming film remains under wraps, it will likely follow the main foursome of teenagers as they once again find themselves inside adult A-list actor avatars within the safari adventure world of the titular supernatural video game. 

Release Plan Follows Previous Franchise Films

The two previous films in the rebooted Jumanji series also came out in December. In 2017, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opened on the 20th and made more than $950 million at the box office. Jumanji: The Next Level came out on December 13, 2019—the same weekend as this upcoming third film was originally slotted for. It made just over $800 million worldwide. 

The change in Jumanji 3's release date shakes up an already very crowded December movie calendar. Before the switch, Jumanji 3 was going to come out one week before the premieres of Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part 3, both of which are dated for December 18. There's speculation that one of those movies might change dates so that they're not directly competing with each other; the MCU movie is probably the bigger, more highly anticipated film, but the Dune trilogy-caper already has IMAX screens locked down for that weekend. Could we be looking at a Barbenheimer-type situation? Dunesday?

With the new Christmas release date, Jumanji3 can perhaps position itself as a fun holiday outing for moviegoers who have already seen Avengers and Dune and need something to watch after they've opened all the presents.

There Are 2 More Major Movies Scheduled to Premiere on Christmas 2026

Jumanji3 ditching the December 11 opening date means that weekend currently doesn't have a big blockbuster release on the books. It remains to be seen if other movies will take advantage of the opening. However, Jumanji 3 does have some notable competition on Christmas. 

Werwulf, the period werewolf horror movie from Nosferatu director Robert Eggers, is set to premiere in theaters on Christmas Day. The overlap between Werwulf's audience and Jumanji 3's audience probably isn't massive. Perhaps the biggest question, though, is whether or not Christmas Day moviegoers will want to leave their houses at all? Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew will premiere on Netflix on the 25th, a month after it premieres in movie theaters on November 26. (A long, exclusive theatrical premiere like this for a Netflix movie is pretty unprecedented.) Audiences who didn't see Narnia in theaters will be able to watch from the comfort of their couch. 

Also worth noting is The Angry Birds Movie 3, which is hitting theaters on December 23.