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After 12-year hiatus, the fourth instalment in the Jackass movie franchise has nabbed the number 1 spot in the US box office.
That is, despite the fact that this blast from the past is relying solely on ticket sales, as the peer-to-peer pirating of yesteryear is no longer available to a majority of today’s youth.
This means that for the first time ever, the kids of today are watching the Jackass stunts either in a cinema – or through an official streaming service. As opposed to a desktop computer, off a burned CD that was sold to them at school by an aspiring weed dealer.
The long-awaited ‘Jackass Forever’ earned $23.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend in theatres, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Film buffs and studio executives were unsure if the docu-comedy would maintain the same cultural capital as it did in the MTV era, but it seems even the TikTok generation of today are still just as keen as their parents were to see grown men gored by bulls and get wedgied.
But the new film not only exceeded the initially modest expectations, it has also knocked off the the big budget competitors that were expected to outperform it. Namely the sci-fi epic “Moonfall” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“ Jackass Forever ” brings back Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and Wee Man for another round of pranks, stunts and injuries and has become the best-reviewed in the series, a stellar effort for a bunch of ageing skaters who are much closer to 50 than you would imagine.
However, local Betoota Heights Gen-Xer Brad Carlton (39) says as funny as the film was, it just doesn’t feel the same.
“It’s not because I’m too old” says Brad, defensively.
“And it’s not because I spent the whole film wondering if these old men were going to break a hip on impact”
“It’s still just as funny as it was when I was smoking bongs in the garage of my mate’s dad’s divorce pad”
Brad says the main difference between the spritely smartass Jackass films and Jackass Forever, is the fact that he had to watch it in an air-conditioned cinema.
“I watched the last three films were either on either VLC media player, or straight off the Limewire preview tab” he said.
“It’s just not the same watching these guys when you know that the film hasn’t been peddled through the family computers of millions of teenagers”
