“Jackass 3D” Pulls $50M Stunt At Box Office

It pays to be a prankster

The third time’s a charm for the reckless pranksters of the “Jackass” movie franchise. The third film (this time in 3D!) raked in an estimated $50 million opening weekend, rising to the coveted number one spot at the box office.

The hodgepodge of harebrained stunts and capers earned far more than either of the first films, MSNBC reported.

With the recent success of other 3D blockbusters such as “Avatar” and “Alice In Wonderland,” it stands to reason that movies like “Jackass” were soon to follow, adding the extra payoff (if you can call it that) of seeing the now sober Steve-O drinking a sweat cocktail in an extra dimension a rewarding payoff.

Critics have either loved the shenanigans or hated them for their grotesque sense of humor and mistreatment of one another. Manola Dargis of the Times laments, “If only there was more to laugh at and with in the movie,” while Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman thinks every prank, every gag is part of the dubious charm of the movie, saying, “it's part of the scuzzy-spontaneous, arrested-child-with-a-camcorder spirit of Jackass that some ideas of bodily harm simply never get old.”

Whether or not these stunts, like Wee Man (Jason Acuña) walking into a bar with an army of little people, or another of the stuntmen getting hit in a rather—er—sensitive area by a charging buffalo, get old or outdated is trivial. The numbers have it, and that’s no prank.

Selected Reading: MSNBC, EW, NY Times

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