Dwayne Johnson is no stranger to a franchise or two, but the official announcement that a second Jungle Cruise was in the works still marked a career milestone for the world’s biggest and highest-paid movie star.
Confirmation that Johnson’s Frank Wolff and Emily Blunt’s Lily Houghton will return for another adventure is the very first time the 49 year-old has ever built his own multi-film series from the ground up, having previously joined The Mummy, Journey, Fast & Furious, G.I. Joe and Jumanji brands when they were already at least one film deep.
Jungle Cruise may not have set the box office alight by any normal metrics, but it’s one of the pandemic era’s few success stories. A 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes coupled with theatrical and Disney Plus revenue of around $250 million is a great return, and it’s just one of four titles to have crossed $100 million domestic this year alongside Black Widow, Fast & Furious 9 and Blunt’s A Quiet Place Part II.
Taking to social media, The Rock thanked his co-stars, creative collaborators and legion of fans for making another Jungle Cruise a reality, which you can check out below.
Johnson clearly hit it off very well with both Emily Blunt and director Jaume Collet-Serra, who’ve now been welcomed into the Seven Bucks inner circle. Jungle Cruise didn’t offer anything audiences hadn’t seen before from the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy, Romancing the Stone and many others, but it was solid studio entertainment that people clearly want to see more of.