If making money was the be-all and end-all for any blockbuster with eyes on starting a franchise, then 2008’s literary adaptation Jumper would have given rise to at least one sequel.
Director Doug Liman’s sci-fi fantasy wasn’t quite a runaway freight train in theaters, but a $225 million tally against an $80 million budget ensured that it wasn’t a commercial catastrophe, while it shifted close to $40 million in home video sales in the United States alone to continue turning a profit.
The filmmaker and star Hayden Christensen sounded confident that they’d be back for further adventures, but the biggest hurdle to overcome was the fact Jumper was resolutely panned. A 15 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is not a number on which a multi-film series is built, even though the concept was ripe for further exploration.
A big budget globetrotting saga revolving around heroes with the ability to teleport being hunted down across the world by a nefarious organization determined to bring them to justice has the legs to sustain at least a couple of additional installments, but any talk of follow-ups evaporated in the wake of the overwhelmingly negative reviews.
On the plus side, Netflix subscribers seem adamant that Jumper isn’t as bad as its reputation suggests, seeing as the one-and-done failure has been beamed right back onto the upper echelons of the Netflix most-watched charts this week, per FlixPatrol. Had the opener been of a better quality, then we’d have been looking back on its legacy, but instead we’ll just wait for the reboot that’s destined to be announced sooner rather than later.
Published: Apr 4, 2023 03:14 am