It’s a very strange situation for the $150 million sequel to a beloved movie getting completely overlooked and forgotten about little over a year on from its heavily-hyped release, but when was the last time you heard anyone even mention Space Jam: A New Legacy?
The second installment in the live-action/animation hybrid universe spent decades in development hell, and finally emerged with LeBron James replacing Michael Jordan at the helm. From there, things kept taking increasingly bizarre turns as people threatened boycotts for a variety of reasons, ranging from the leading man’s tweets to the exclusion of Pepe Le Pew, via accusations that Lola Bunny wasn’t sexy enough anymore. Unprecedented and uncertain times, indeed.
In the end, A New Legacy tanked at the box office because it was released during the second-worst summer imaginable (after the previous one, funnily enough), while it was roundly panned by critics and audiences alike for being a 115-minute ad for Warner Bros. IP, as opposed to even a halfway enjoyable feature film in its own right.
Malcolm D. Lee’s bizarre misfire did at least secure some awards season glory, even if LeBron winning a Razzie wasn’t quite what anyone had in mind. Space Jam 2 is already a footnote in cinematic history, but it has at least managed to score a slam dunk on the HBO Max watch-list this week.
As per FlixPatrol, the incredibly odd (but not in a good way) mashup of countless styles, tones, brands, and genres has nabbed a Top 10 finish in 20 nations around the world, restoring just the tiniest bit of relevance to a critical and commercial disaster.
