The Next Jumanji Movie Is Trying To Get Out Of The Way Of Dunesday, But I Don’t Think It’s Enough

While jockeying for position on a release calendar is a constant battle, usually by the time a new year begins, the plans for which movie will be released when in that year have been figured out. That's not the case with the 2026 movie schedule, as we’ve just seen a major December movie shift its release date. Although it isn’t one of the two massive blockbusters set to open on December 18th.

Jumanji 4 Moves To A Christmas Day Release Date

On a day that the internet has dubbed “Dunesday” (or Pughsday, if you’re a fan of Florence Pugh, who appears in both films), Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday are both set to release in theaters. The weekend has the potential to be one of the biggest in box office history. Now Deadline reports another film, the recently wrapped Jumanji 4, has made the decision to shift its opening. It's going from the previous weekend December 11, to the following one: Christmas Day, December 25.

The reason should be self-evident. With Dune and Avengers coming out the weekend after Jumanji, while the new film could have a solid opening weekend, any future box office business is all but guaranteed to be swallowed by the big behemoths. Both of the previous Jumanji movies have had successful box office runs, specifically because they continued to do solid box office for multiple weeks. So only getting one weekend of business just isn’t going to work for this movie.

Coming out after the two big movies is likely to help. A large portion of the audience for these two big movies will see them opening weekend, opening the door to Jumanji to do much better in the following weeks. Still, this doesn’t feel like quite enough.

Jumanji Is Still Likely To Be Steamrolled By Dune And Doomsday

While Jumanji’s box office fortunes are likely better opening the weekend after Dunesday than before it, it’s still hard to believe that it will have a clear path. As with Barbenheimer before them, Dune and Avengers have the potential to both make a billion dollars at the global box office. You can’t do that without having solid box office for multiple weeks at a time.

The last two Jumanji movies came out against the final two chapters of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and held their own, but that was one movie from a very different franchise in a very different time. I feel like the double shot of blockbusters here is going to do more damage.

The modern Jumanji movies have made fans, and those fans, myself included, will be happy to go and see the film whenever it comes out. Just because the previous films were December releases doesn’t mean this one needs to be. If it came out in March or April, it would likely do a lot better.

Considering that Jumanji only wrapped production a few weeks ago, the added time would also have the benefit of giving the post-production team doing any digital effects more time to get it all done. And that’s not a bad thing.