With worldwide box office grosses exceeding $540 million on a $75 million production budget, Madagascar was deemed a huge success. It also got a generation of kids — and adults — singing along to "I Like To Move It," performed by Sacha Baron Cohen as an eccentric lemur, but that's beside the point.
The first movie was such a hit that they made two more feature-length films — Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in 2008, and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted in 2012 — as well as two Christmas special short films in 2005 and 2009, and a Valentine's Day special in 2013. If that wasn't enough, there was also the spin-off movie, Penguins of Madagascar, in 2014.
In the past decade, there's been no word of any more movies in the Madagascar franchise — and one person who's ready for that to change is Chris Rock, who memorably starred in the films as Marty the Zebra.
"It's probably the biggest movie I've ever been in. We did three of them. I pray to God we do one more," Chris said in a recent interview with Variety. "In a world where they're rebooting everything, let's do Madagascar!"
In his impassioned plea, Chris joked that his finances have been running dry since his 2016 split from Malaak Compton-Rock. "Do you understand? I got divorced. I don't have the Madagascar money anymore," he said.
"We only did three — there's five Ice Ages! FIVE! I need another Madagascar... It's time," he said. "Wasn't there a Toy Story 4 or 5? Why can't we figure this out!" (Don't tell Chris, but there's actually six Ice Age movies, and a seventh on the way.)
The clip of Chris begging for another Madagascar movie has racked up over a million views on TikTok and a further 4.2 million views on Instagram. People are praising his "candor," while others have pointed out a reason that another Madagascar movie "might not work."
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"He’s gonna have to do press with Jada though 😭," read one TikTok comment with over 20,000 likes, obviously referring to the infamous Oscars slap.
Am I the only one who forgot that Jada and Chris were ever in the same movie? Make that THREE movies. Hilariously, in the full interview clip, Chris notably avoids saying Jada's name aloud when recalling his fellow cast members, instead saying, "Me, Ben Stiller, and two other people." (I'm not sure if he has some secret beef with David Schwimmer, or if he was trying to make things less awkward.)
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Jada drama aside, it seems there's not much demand for another Madagascar with the OG cast making a comeback. "The damn penguins took over that franchise," one IG user wrote, echoed by someone else who said that "the side characters carried" the films.