Jumanji: The Next Level Producers Talk About Facing Star Wars AGAIN During Holiday Movie Season

The idea of having to go up against a Star Wars movie can be nerve-wracking for any producer. However, Jumanji: The Next Level is truly taking a huge risk by getting a release date just a week ahead of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Interestingly, this isn't the first time that a Jumanji film is facing off against Star Wars but The Next Level producers Hiram Garcia and Matt Tolmach are taking it all in stride.

Garcia and Tolmach recently spoke to Cinemablend about their new challenge and they admitted that they were worried about Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle fighting for box office domination against Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

"We were very aware [at the time] of, like, as giant Star Wars fans, the amount of times we were like, ‘Bro, we're going against Star Wars? Is everyone sure?' And especially with that movie, there was so much buzz around [The Last Jedi] and what was going to happen," Garcia said. "We had a ton of moments where like, ‘Are we really sure that we want to come out against Star Wars?'"

Tolmach agrees but he also pointed out that they couldn't really avoid the release date since Jumanji would be best released during the holidays. Additionally, he feels pretty confident that The Next Level will do well in the box office.

"When you're having a conversation about release dates, obviously you have to be aware of what else is on your date or close to your date," Tolmach said. "But to the extent that a movie can actually capture the spirit of a time of year, that this is a holiday movie, that it's a movie about people coming together and being there for each other, which is sort of in the holiday tradition, it just felt like it was good timing. And you know, we had a few fairly major movie stars in our arsenal also. We were showing up with the goods, but still it was, it was super, super daunting."

Welcome to the Jungle was released just a few days after The Last Jedi but it still did well in the box office. It looks like Jumanji has a small advantage this year as it will premiere ahead of The Rise of Skywalker. We'll find out this December if both movies turn out to be winners.

Jumanji: The Next Level will be released on December 13 while Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20.

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