“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” Surpasses Box Office Expectations

The fourth installment in the “Bad Boys” franchise exceeded studio and analyst expectations with a $56 million opening weekend, marking the second-best opening of the season and providing a significant boost to an otherwise slow summer box office. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” continuing the series that began with the 1995 release of “Bad Boys,” grossed $56 million domestically in its opening weekend, nearly doubling Sony’s internal projection of $30 million and surpassing industry estimates of $45 million to $50 million. Although it didn’t surpass the franchise record set by “Bad Boys for Life” ($62.5 million in 2020), it is the second-best opening in the series, a notable achievement for a fourth installment. The film has already outperformed its $100 million budget globally, grossing $104.6 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

Following “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” “The Garfield Movie” was the weekend’s second-highest performer with $10 million, while “IF” took third place with $8 million. M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Watchers” grossed $7 million, below its $12 million to $20 million expectations. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” which had the highest opening of the summer so far at $58.4 million, was fifth with $5.4 million, bringing its total domestic gross to $149 million.

The summer movie season, which runs from early May through Labor Day, is about a quarter of the way through, with total gross sales reaching $653.9 million. This is only about 16% of the $4.03 billion reported last summer. The 2023 summer box office, the first to surpass $4 billion since the pandemic, was driven by blockbusters like “Barbie,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” and “Oppenheimer.” This year’s box office is expected to reach only around $3 billion, hindered by production delays from last year’s actors’ and writers’ strikes and the absence of a Marvel superhero film to kick off the season. Anticipated releases like “Inside Out 2” (June 14), “Despicable Me 4” (July 3), and “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26) are still to come.

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” is the first major Will Smith film since the 2022 Oscars incident, where Smith slapped host Chris Rock. The altercation, which occurred after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, led to Smith receiving a decade-long ban from the Oscars. Despite the controversy, Smith’s films have grossed $4 billion at the domestic box office, with “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” outperforming the average opening weekend for Smith’s movies, which stands at $31.6 million.

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