While you were arguing about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” has grown into a monster, global hit and currently stands at $769 million worldwide and there’s much more to come. The rebootquel is the first movie to open below the number one slot, and earn more than $300 million domestically — in fact, ‘Jumanji’ has spent the last three weeks at the top of the box office. It’s a massive hit, and as such, Sony has massive plans.

While there’s no official announcement just yet, The Wall Street Journal reveals that Sony chief Tom Rothman is aiming to have the followup to “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” in theaters for Christmas 2019, where it will square off against “Star Wars: Episode IX” which opens on December 20, 2019. Is that folly or hubris? Hardly. While Disney has certainly owned the December frame with their “Star Wars” films, Hollywood has learned they can still have success with smart counter-programming. For example, “Daddy’s Home” opened a week after “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on Christmas Day, and went on to earn $242 million worldwide. “Sisters,” which opened the same weekend as ‘The Force Awakens,” tallied $105 million worldwide. Both played to different, niche moviegoers, and scored big.

Sony has already proved there’s a massive audience for ‘Jumanji,’ and even if the movie was not at the top of the box office for a couple of weeks, it’s clear that audiences are patient enough to catch up with it. It’s a unique blockbuster story — it’s extraordinary that the film opened five days after ‘The Last Jedi,’ and has managed such impressive numbers and audience hold. It’s pretty much unheard of. It looks like the greatest threat to the galaxy far, far away might just be Dwayne Johnson.

EXCLUSIVE: After Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle gave Star Wars: The Last Jedi a run for its money in December and has become the highest grossing non-Spider-Man hit that Sony Pictures has generated in forever, the studio has started the process toward the inevitable next installment. Sony Pictures is in talks with Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner to write a sequel that will reunite Dwayne Johnson with Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan and the rest of the ensemble.

Matt Tolmach is back producing along with the Seven Bucks Production team of Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Though the film’s start date hasn’t been determined, Welcome to the Jungle director Jake Kasdan is expected back as he, Rosenberg and Pinkner come up with the sequel. The sequel has grossed $857 million globally on around a $100 million budget.

Rosenberg and Pinkner are repped by WME and they both wrote for Sony on Venom, the Ruben Fleischer-directed Spidey spinoff that stars Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams. The duo were last writers on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a script that had earlier work by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

During the tail end of Sony’s film slate presentation at CinemaCon, chairman Tom Rothman announced the release date for the next Jumanji installment for December 2019. “Don’t give all your screens to Star Wars,” Rothman said to the exhibitors seated in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, the reboot of the 1995 Robin Williams-starring adventure pic, is officially the studio’s highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office, overtaking Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man ($403.7 million), with a total domestic gross of 404.1M and worldwide its made close to 957M.

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan will reprise their roles. Jake Kasdan directed the surprise blockbuster although it’s unclear if he’ll be returning for the sequel.

Currently the December 2019 film release schedule includes Untitled Blumhouse Productions Project II, Masters of the Universe, Star Wars: Episode IX, and Superintelligence.