After waiting 25 years for the movie to come together, which included a string of minor controversies that ranged from the whole Pepe Le Pew fiasco to calls for a boycott based on leading man LeBron James’ social media activity via the discourse that Lola Bunny wasn’t hot enough anymore, Space Jam: A New Legacy finally arrived on July 16th to deliver one of the year’s most mediocre blockbusters.
James once again pulled the trigger on his itchy Twitter finger by blasting his detractors after the sequel opened to over $30 million domestically, but takings dropped by almost 70% the following weekend. It’s already starting to taper off at the box office with a little over $120 million in the coffers, still nowhere near recouping a budget that’s said to be at least $150 million.
It was essentially one big advertisement for HBO Max and the Warner Bros. back catalogue, so it’s actually shocking to hear that another corporate crossover never made it into the final cut. As you can see below, one abandoned sequence would have seen James sporting Game of Thrones armor, but instead A New Legacy made do with Foghorn Leghorn riding a dragon and shouting “winter as coming”, which is about as odd as it sounds.
It’s only been three weeks since Space Jam: A New Legacy was released, but it’s already fallen off the cultural map after a weekend of intense online debate and discussion. It doesn’t look as though Malcolm D. Lee’s follow up is going to turn out to be profitable, either, so maybe his idea for a third installment bringing in Dwayne Johnson and shifting the focus to professional wrestling is worth a shot given the stars’ reputation as self-proclaimed ‘Franchise Viagra’.