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Blunt, Johnson navigate tricky 'Jungle Cruise' debut

It’s been a while since movie stars did this….

[UPSOUND CROWD CHEERING]

Attend a film premiere – in person, unmasked – and with an audience seated in front of a massive screen, albeit an outdoor one.

DWAYNE JOHNSON AND EMILY BLUNT ON STAGE: ‘Wow, thank you!’ ‘Thank you, guys!’

But with Disney counting on "Jungle Cruise" – its new swashbuckling family film based on its popular theme park ride – to help lure people back into theaters, a flashy premiere with stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemed fitting.

BLUNT: "It was magic. We've been waiting for a long time for it come out and we've kind of known that we have this little treasure. And now that people have seen it, it's really surreal and really lovely."

Blunt plays an explorer determined find an ancient tree with the potential to cure many of humanity's ills.

BLUNT: "I always say to writers, like, 'Just write me as a guy and leave the girl stuff to me. Just write me as multi-layered and full of faults and full of, you know, the downfalls of what it is to be a human being and just leave the girl stuff to me'."

JOHNSON: "I tell writers the same thing. Leave the girl stuff up to me. Write me as a dude."

BLUNT: "That's why you're always so..."

JOHNSON: "Sensitive"

BLUNT: "Now I get it - so sensitive. You have that vulnerability to you. I get it now. I get it."

Johnson is the riverboat skipper hired to take her on the dangerous trek down the Amazon River.

JOHNSON: “For those who don't know, this iconic Disney ride that our movie is based off of, that's the charm of the skippers, is that they tell these very bad puns that are so bad, they're good. And then, when people exit the boat, they just find themselves repeating these puns and puns, so I consider myself a new aged pun-slinger, if you will."

BLUNT: "He loves this."

He also slings more than puns –

as the two of them encounter all sorts of tricky situations along their journey.

Meanwhile, Disney – and the rest of Hollywood – is navigating how to entice audiences, and to that end is also releasing the film on its new streaming service Disney+ - like it did with its Marvel film ‘Black Widow’, much to the chagrin of theater owners.

Johnson, for one, isn’t worried about how it will all shake out.

“That's just the machinations of the movie business. It will all... It's like an amoeba. It will take shape and form based on what the consumers want."

"Jungle Cruise" debuts Friday, July 30th.