Jackass: Best and Last opens with an 88% Tomatometer, beating Jackass Forever

If you’re tracking what “brand strength” actually looks like on a Tomatometer, Rotten Tomatoes just handed you a clean test case: Jackass: Best and Last (2026) sits at 88% critics, ahead of Jackass Forever (2022) at 86%. The ranking matters because it slices the franchise into distinct eras and formats, from the original MTV run to the Bad Grandpa spinoff and the later reunion feature.

The top of the list also gives you a useful question to keep in your pocket. Why did critics score the “maybe final feature-length installment” higher than the big comeback? According to Rotten Tomatoes, Jackass Forever (2022) has “the feel of a proper send-off” at 86%, while Jackass: Best and Last (2026) has 88% but “No consensus yet.” That combination, high score plus uncertain consensus, is the kind of pattern that can affect marketing tone, distribution confidence, and how fast investors and partners decide whether momentum is real.

Let’s run the full Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer ladder, because the ordering tells a story even when the genres change. At #1 is Jackass Forever (2022) with 86%. The critics consensus frames it as a “gleefully gonzo franchise revival” that will make you “worry more than ever for the cast's health and safety,” while still delivering enough laughter to keep the stunts coming. It’s directed by Jeff Tremaine and stars Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, and Dave England. That “revival” language is important: it’s not just about shock value, it’s about whether the franchise managed to return with cohesion.

At #2 comes Jackass: Best and Last (2026) at 88%, also directed by Jeff Tremaine. The stars listed here are Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, and Ehren McGhehey, and the critics consensus says “No consensus yet.” So you’re seeing a split between raw Tomatometer percentage and the shared critical reasoning behind it. That gap is operationally relevant for anyone who has to bet on the next title: a high percentage without consensus can mean early reviewers liked it, or it can mean the review base is still thin. Either way, the ordering is a signal, just not a fully matured one.

Now zoom out to the middle and you see why franchise continuity is never a guarantee of consistent scores. Jackass 3 (2010) lands at #3 with 67%. The consensus says the gang might be “running out of gross-out stunts,” but the installment still includes “brilliantly brain-dead comedy,” with “the 3-D” adding a new dimension. The listed cast includes Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, and the director is again Jeff Tremaine. The takeaway for executives is subtle: the franchise can still be funny even if novelty is harder to generate, but the scoring drops when critics perceive a constraint like “running out” on a core mechanic.

At #4, Jackass: Number Two (2006) sits at 66%. The consensus: “Better than any sequel to a movie of a television show has a right to be,” plus a blunt warning not to laugh. The listed stars are Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, and Chris Pontius, and Jeff Tremaine directs. In other words, critics here are comparing it against expectations for TV-to-film transitions, then finding it exceeds them. That is classic franchise evaluation logic, and it often shows up when studios decide whether to treat a property as “premium IP” or as a one-off conversion.

Then you hit the spinoff and the earliest feature, where the critical bar seems to shift again. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) is #5 at 61%. The consensus says it’s “Never quite as funny as it wants to be,” while still delivering the “timeless pleasures” of an old man getting his privates stuck in a vending machine. The listed story premise is Irascible Irving Zisman and his grandson Billy on a road trip across America, with hidden cameras capturing “insane and shocking” moments. Stars listed are Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Gregorio, and Georgina Cates; Jeff Tremaine directs.

Finally at #6 is the original big screen entry, Jackass: The Movie (2002) at 49%. The consensus is more cautious: there’s “a good chance you'll be laughing hysterically at one stunt,” but you might also get “grossed out by the next one.” The listed premise frames it as a comedic documentary where Johnny Knoxville heads a crew of stuntmen, skateboarders, and “all-around lunatics” who prank, embarrass, and torture each other. The stars are Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, and Steve-O, and Jeff Tremaine directs.

Why should an operator or board member care about a gross-out stunt franchise ranking? Because it mirrors the real decision-making environment around recurring properties. You’re managing expectations across formats (original feature vs. sequel vs. spinoff), across time gaps, and across review cycles. A higher Tomatometer late in the timeline can influence everything from partner negotiations to marketing spend to distribution strategy. And the “No consensus yet” note on an 88% Tomatometer is a reminder that headline numbers move faster than critical narratives. That mismatch can create early momentum that later needs underwriting.

For peers evaluating what comes next in their own franchises, the ordering here is the cleanest lesson: critics respond not only to whether the stunts land, but to whether the franchise evolves the experience. Jackass Forever (2022) scored 86% with a consensus about it feeling like “a proper send-off,” while Jackass: Best and Last (2026) leads at 88% with no consensus yet. In practice, that means the next release doesn’t just need to deliver more of what worked. It needs to deliver a coherent reason to return, even when the whole concept is chaos.