Paramount’s action comedy Jackass Forever triumphed at the domestic box office, while Roland Emmerich’s disaster epic Moonfall turned into an epic disaster.

Jackass Forever is the fourth installment in the ongoing saga of projectiles to the groin.

It began as an MTV television series more than two decades ago and continued with three other R-rated prank films.

The movie collected $23.5 million from 3,604 locations in its debut, landing on the higher end of expectations.

The latest “Jackass,” starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man and other daredevils from MTV days, had been expected to win the weekend, but its victory is still surprising as it’s been some time since comedy has claimed the top spot.

In catapulting to first place, “Jackass Forever” finally took down reigning champion Spider-Man: No Way Home, which spent 6 of the last 8 weeks at No. 1.

“Jackass Forever” has been well received by critics, notching a solid 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and “B+” CinemaScore from audience members.

Ticket buyers were male at 68%, while 25% were over the age of 35 and 67% were between 18 and 34. The breakdown indicates that Jackass has enduring popularity among its initial fanbase while managing to bring in new admirers of male junk-centric stunts.

With $10 million production budget, Jackass Forever will be a commercial hit.

Moonfall, the science-fiction catastrophe film crash-landed on the lower end of projections, bringing in $10.1 million from 3,446 venues. Those ticket sales are potentially problematic because “Moonfall” cost $140 million to produce, making it one of the most expensive indie films in history.

Commercial sentiment may not help; moviegoers stuck the film with an unenthusiastic “C+” CinemaScore. Unless the movie becomes a huge hit overseas, however, Moonfall likely will not become a financial success.

Emmerich, who made hits like “Independence Day,” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” was once the premier director of big-budget catastrophe. But in the case of “Moonfall,” which stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, John Bradley, Michael Peña and Donald Sutherland and centers on efforts to prevent the moon from colliding with Earth, his movies aren’t offering the kind of escapism that pandemic-fatigued audiences are looking for.

Lionsgate is only distributing the film, so the company will not absorb the loss.

Moonfall managed to place in second on domestic box office charts. The movie narrowly beat Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which dropped to the No. 3 spot in its eighth weekend of release. The comic book adventure, led by Tom Holland, scraped together $9.6 million from 3,600 theaters, marking a scant 11% decline from its prior outing. After two months on the big screen, the latest Spidey story has grossed an eye-popping $748.9 million at the domestic box office.

“No Way Home” is just $11.1 million away from unseating James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster “Avatar” ($760 million) as the third-biggest domestic release in history (not adjusted for inflation). At the global box office, where “Avatar” holds the all-time record with $2.802 billion, “Spider-Man” is holding steady in sixth place with $1.77 billion. Since “No Way Home” hasn’t been granted a release date in China, the world’s biggest theatrical market, it’ll have trouble cracking the coveted $2 billion mark, a threshold that only five films have ever crossed. But, of course, none of those films premiered during a pandemic.

Paramount’s slasher sequel Scream generated $4.7 million from 3,227 screens. It pushes the film’s four-week total to $68.9 million.

Sing 2

Universal’s holiday release Sing 2 rounded out the top five, collecting $4.1 million from 3,266 theaters. The animated musical comedy dropped only 11% from the weekend prior, which is impressive; the film is available to rent online. Since debuting around Christmas, “Sing 2” has grossed a mighty $139.5 million.

Neon put The Worst Person in the World on four screens, where it amassed $135,042. That translates to excellent $33,760 per screen, the highest for any film in 2022 and the third-highest for any film in 2021 after “Licorice Pizza” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

The foreign-language film has been rapturously reviewed, holding a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Joachim Trier, the Oslo-set romantic drama The Worst Person in the World stars Renate Reinsve as a woman navigating the ups and downs of life in her late 20s and early 30s.