In a summer full of movies underperforming at the box office, the old-fashioned star power of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence propelled Bad Boys: Ride or Die to a strong start this weekend with a $56 million opening. That’s at least $10 million more than even the most optimistic box office predictions (we predicted way less) and a strong rebound for Will Smith, whose box office prowess has been in question ever since the infamous Oscar slap seemingly hurt his brand.

Whatever the case, audiences seemed more than willing to embrace the star again. The Bad Boys four-quel posted the franchise’s second-biggest opening, following Bad Boys For Life, which started with $62 million in 2020. While some might view that as a bit of a comedown, let’s not forget that the business in movie theatres was much healthier in the pre-pandemic days. With not much competition for adult audiences until A Quiet Place: Day One later this month, Bad Boys: Ride or Die should have great legs at the box office and should go down as one of the season’s bigger moneymakers.

Note that the only other film this summer that opened bigger than Bad Boys: Ride or Die was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which grossed $2 million more for a $58 million opening. However, that tentpole film was PG-13 and appealed to the family audience that might have been kept away from Bad Boys due to its (refreshing) R-rating. Overall, this is a great start and proof that the franchise definitely still has legs.

However, while Bad Boys defied the recent box office slump, other movies this weekend weren’t so lucky. Ishana Shyamalan’s The Watchers proved to be a box office dud for Warner Bros, with it opening in 4th place with a disastrous $7 million and a horrible C-minus CinemaScore rating (Bad Boys earned a solid A-minus).  Furiosa also had a disastrous 61% drop this weekend, with it slipping to 6th place with $4.2 million and a $58 million total. Why did it do so badly? Simple – it lost all of its premium screens to Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

Meanwhile, The Garfield Movie held on to second place with a $10 million weekend and a $68.6 million total. It will certainly turn a profit for Sony, but it wasn’t the box office juggernaut that some might have expected it to be. It’s had a lot of competition for the family audience thanks to John Krasinski’s IF, which climbed the chart to third place with an $8 million finish as it closes in on $100 million. Word of mouth has really given this one strong legs.

So far, the summer’s biggest moneymaker has been Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which leapfrogged over Furiosa to fifth place with a solid $5.4 million weekend and a $149 million total. The Fall Guy also showed better staying power than expected, considering it’s already on VOD, with a seventh-place finish with $2.7 million and an $85 million domestic total. It likely won’t hit $100 million, but it will come relatively close.

Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 1 lost a chunk of its audience this weekend due to its VOD debut, earning $1.84 million in tenth place. However, the $34 million domestic total is more than decent for this low-budget franchise starter.

A surprising return

If you look at the box office chart below, one of the most interesting things to note is that the re-release of Lord of the Rings in its extended edition format ate up 8th and 9th place. Fellowship of the Ring came in 8th place with $2.4 million, while The Two Towers was behind it with $1.9 million. Re-releases have proven to be unexpected moneymakers this summer, with the recent Alien and Phantom Menace re-releases also doing exceptionally well. I’d expect more to come.

Next weekend, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 will be released. They hope this movie will reverse their box office slump. Do you think it will open north of $60 million? Let us know in the comments!

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