Disney is ready to go down the river one more time.
With Jungle Cruise crossing the $100 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, the studio is pulling the trigger on a sequel.
Stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to return as wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, respectively, for the brand new adventure with Michael Green, who co-wrote the hit, back at the keyboard.
Expected to also come back are director Jaume Collet-Serra and the film’s producing team of John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Scott Sheldon returns as executive producer.
Like a riverboat steadfastly making its way up the Amazon River, Cruise has chugged its way to hit status. It opened July 30 to more than $35 million at the domestic box office and more than $30 million in Disney+ Premier Access in its first three days, according to the studio. And even with the challenges created by rising and new waves of the coronavirus pandemic, the movie has remained a top box office draw, and its fifth weekend of release saw a drop domestically of only 21 percent. The domestic tally now stands at $100.1 million. Worldwide, the box office cume is $187 million.
Audiences have given the movie an A- Cinemascore, and it has garnered a 92 percent score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie, which was in development for more than 15 years before finally making its way to the screen, is based on the popular Disneyland attraction, where it was one of the original rides when the theme park opened in 1955.
Green next has Fox/Disney’s all-star adaptation of Agatha Christie mystery, Death on the Nile, which is due to open in 2022. He is repped by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment and Felker Toczek
Collet-Serra is coming off of principal photography of Black Adam, the DC and New Line movie that stars Johnson. He is repped by LBI Management and Greenberg Glusker.
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