What slap?
Sony’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die jolted the battered summer office back to life with a better-than-expected domestic opening of $56 million opening and $104.6 million globally.
Moreover, it puts Will Smith on the road to a career comeback two years after the infamous Oscars slap.
Ride or Die, reuniting Smith with Martin Lawrence, is the fourth outing in Sony’s long-running franchise and earned an A- CinemaScore alongside generally positive reviews. Just as promising, 44 percent of the audience was between ages 18 and 34, showing Smith has a following among younger consumers. Black moviegoers made up the largest quadrant of the audience with 44 percent.
Ride or Die is arguably the first film of the summer to come in ahead of tracking, which had it opening in the $48 million to $50 million range. It’s also the second biggest domestic launch of the season behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which debuted to $58 million domestically.
The $100 million film is the follow-up to Bad Boys for Life, which opened to $62 million in January 2022 on its way to earning $426 million at the global box office before theaters were shut due to the global pandemic.
Smith and Lawrence return as Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, who have to go on the run after their late police captain gets linked to drug cartels, and they attempt to clear his name. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (billed as Adil & Bilall) directed Bad Boys: Ride or Die from a script written by Chris Bremner and Will Beall.
The film marks the first major theatrical push for Smith since he accosted Chris Rock during the live telecast of the 2022 Oscars (which was seemingly addressed in the film).
The Hollywood Reporter learned that Smith’s agents at CAA have been calling studio production execs in recent weeks for the first time since the slap to explore possible projects, with the hope that the actor’s next film can be announced quickly after the release of Ride or Die, should it perform.
It’s a good weekend for Sony Pictures Motion Group CEP Tom Rothman, whose studio also commanded the second spot with the modestly budgeted The Garfield Movie.
More to come.
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