Box office
Jojo Rabbit grossed $33.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $57 million in other territories (including $4 million in New Zealand), for a worldwide total of $90.3 million.[78]
In its domestic limited opening weekend, the film made $349,555 from five theaters, an average of $69,911 per venue (the fourth-best of 2019).[113] On its opening day alone it earned an average of $70,000,[13] The film expanded to 55 theaters in 10 cities the following week, making $1 million,[114] and in its third weekend it grossed $2.3 million from 256 theaters.[115] It went wide the following weekend, making $4 million from 802 theaters.[116] The film's theater count peaked the fifth weekend of its release, making $2.8 million from 995 theaters, before making $1.6 million in its sixth weekend.[117][118] Viewership expansions were credited to Christmas and the attention it began to receive among the accolades community, surpassing $20 million as of December 19, 2019, its tenth week, at which point it was showing in 230 theaters.[119]
In the immediate aftermath of its Academy Award for Best Picture nomination, the film experienced a box office boost, with 895 more theaters screening it. On January 19, 2020, it was being screened at 1,005 American theaters, "the largest expansion of any Oscar contender" according to TheWrap. During the weekend, it earned $1.8 million, bringing its total to $23.8 million.[120] Over the Oscar weekend, the film's 17th week of release, it made $1.5 million from 1,096 theaters, for a running total of $30.3 million.[121] Demand dropped during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic by as much as 68%,[122] with its rank at the box office dropping from 21 to 32 between February 21, 2020 and its closing date. Its peak period was November 8–14, its fourth weekend, when it earned $5,603,616 (average: $7,022) from 798 theaters, experiencing a 70.3% increase in demand and ranking 11th place at the U.S. box office.[78]
On February 23, 2020, its third week of release on home video, 14,277 DVD copies were sold ($208,046) and 47,036 Blu-ray copies were sold, making a total profit of $1,365,588. The latter type saw fewer purchases the following month.[105]
Outside of the United States and Canada, Jojo Rabbit did the best in the United Kingdom, where it grossed $10,450,169, followed by Australia ($7,020,681) and Mexico ($4,952,293), as well as Italy, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. It performed the worst in Bulgaria, where it earned a total of $39,181 as of March 11, 2020.[105] In India, the film opened earning ₹ 1.2-1.5 million on the first day,[123] ₹6 million in the first 3 days, and closed after 28 days with a total of ₹34.3 million.[124] As of July 15, 2020, the film had earned $36,000 (€30,614) in Italy from 37 theaters with a total of $4.4 million (€3,741,719), earning first place at the box office.[125] In China, where it was released the latest, it earned more: a total of $1,590,000 from 7,099 theaters, with an opening weekend gross of $730,000.[105]
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 80% with an average score of 7.6/10, based on 422 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Jojo Rabbit's blend of irreverent humor and serious ideas definitely won't be to everyone's taste—but either way, this anti-hate satire is audacious to a fault."[126] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100 based on 57 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[127] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film a 96% overall positive score, with 87% saying they would definitely recommend it.[114]
Brian Truitt, writing for USA Today called it "brilliant Nazi-mocking satire", praising the performances, and writing: "As much as it makes you laugh, Waititi's must-watch effort is a warm hug of a movie that just so happens to have a lot of important things to say."[128] In a positive review, Steve Pond of TheWrap wrote that "there's real heart in Jojo Rabbit, too. This is a dark satire that finds a way to make a case for understanding. As circumstances slowly chip away at Jojo's hate-driven worldview, the black comedy finds room for some genuinely touching moments."[129]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times lauded it as "uncomfortably funny, unapologetically insensitive, cheerfully outrageous" and concluding that writer-director Waititi "delivers a timely, anti-hate fractured fairy tale."[130] In another positive review, Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote: "It's Waititi's ability to balance unassailable goofy moments with an acknowledgment of real-life horrors that makes the movie exceptional."[131] Adam Graham of The Detroit News called it an "enchanting, whimsical satire about the absurdity of war as seen through a child's eyes" as well as "a smart, accessible, inclusive film that opens doors at a time when many are slamming them shut."[132] Benjamin Franz of Film & History praised the film for its use of symmetrical cinematography and exaggerated German accents, equivalent to the styles of Wes Anderson films. The film also does not show liberating shots of the skies, offering a sense of tightness to the setting equivalent to the works of Fritz Lang.[133]
Variety's Owen Gleiberman said that the film "creates the illusion of danger while playing it safe" and wrote that "it lacks the courage of its own conventionality. It's a feel-good movie, all right, but one that uses the fake danger of defanged black comedy to leave us feeling good about the fact that we're above a feel-good movie."[134] Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote that "Despite a few flashes of tragedy, Jojo Rabbit lingers in a charming muddle of good vibes without really confronting their implications. [Waititi] may be one of the few working directors capable of injecting quirky scenarios with real depth, but in this case, he reduces the underlying circumstances—you know, that Holocaust thing—to a superficial prop."[135]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that "The particulars of the evil can seem curiously abstract, and the portrayal of goodness can feel a bit false, and forced" and that "Elsa's Jewishness has no real content. She exists mainly as a teaching moment for Johannes. Her plight is a chance for him to prove his bravery."[136] Keith Uhlich of Slant Magazine criticized the film's premise, lack of historical accuracy and realism, and use of anti-semitic canards and stereotypes, and wrote that Waititi's performance as Hitler is "aiming for The Great Dictator but barely hitting Ace Ventura."[137] Little White Lies' Hannah Woodhead criticized the film for its inclusion of a sympathetic Nazi character, Captain Klenzendorf, writing that it "feels oddly impartial, keen to note that actually, there were some Nice Nazis Too. That's not really something we need to hear in 2019, with white nationalism back in vogue and on the march across much of western civilisation."[138]
The film received a negative critical reception in the UK, with Robbie Collin saying that he was "aghast": the scenes at the camp were "the laziest rip-off of Moonrise Kingdom I've seen in my life", and "there's no sense that anything is at stake [...] it sentimentalises and trivialises the Holocaust [...] the stuff that JoJo is indoctrinated with is made up of old Borat lines, and that's not what anti-Semitism is."[139] Peter Bradshaw agreed: "There are no insights to be had – and no laughs", and calling it "strangely redundant".[140] Mark Kermode was slightly more positive, but still said that it was "neither sharp enough nor funny enough to cut to the heart of its subject matter."[141]
