Bad Boys brought good news to theaters as Sony’s legacy fourquel Bad Boys: Ride or Die delivered a $56M opening weekend in North America.

This was exactly the kind of old school, movie star-oriented tentpole we don’t get enough of these days—and thirsty audiences drank it up. Overall box office attendance is still -38% from 2023, but that’s a sight better than last week which posted a -67% comparative drop. The 2024 Summer box office should continue its upward climb with next weekend’s release of Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2; the G-rated family title should have little impact on the R-rated Bad Boys and is expected to help round out the market.

1. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Sony Pictures | NEW
$56M Domestic Weekend
$104.6M Global Cume

You’ve got to hand it to Sony, who paid a somewhat tarnished post-slap Will Smith his full quote to headline the fourth film in a nearly three-decade old franchise, brought it in at a bargain $100M budget, then gave the movie a prime summer slot.

Sony’s faith in the franchise paid off with an estimated $56M weekend take from 3,885 locations, performing on the high-end of our pre-release prediction range. Per Screen Average was through-the-roof with $14,414.

This is also the largest opening weekend for an R-rated film since last summer’s Oppenheimer, and a testament to the continued drawing power of Smith (his 6th best opener ever). The new picture scored well with audiences, with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, 5-star PostTrak rating, and “A-” CinemaScore ensuring solid play in the weeks to come. Premium Large Format screens were not a big factor, with $5.2M earned on 401 IMAX screens (9.3% of domestic).

Here’s how the 3-Day looked:

• Friday – $21.6M
• Saturday – $19.5M
• Sunday – $14.9M

Demographics skewed heavily towards Black audiences…

• 44% Black
• 26% Latino and Hispanic
• 18% Caucasian
• 8% Asian
• 4% other

Here’s where it stands in terms of 2024 openings:

• Dune: Part Two – $82.5M
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – $80M
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – $58.4M
• Kung Fu Panda 4 – $57.9M
• Bad Boys: Ride or Die – $56M
• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – $45M

Of course, we’d be remiss not to point out the downside here as well. The last film in the series, Bad Boys For Life, had a $62.5M opening frame in the January doldrums of 2020. That last installment also had a higher critical RT rating (76% vs 64%), meaning there still may be some residual post-slap “ill-Will,” so to speak. Still, grading on a 2024 curve this is a fantastic opening and a win for all involved, especially Sony whose The Garfield Movie also held strong to take the #2 position with an estimated $10M 3-Day.

The strong debut extended beyond North America, with Bad Boys: Ride or Die earning an international bow of $48.6M on 16,700+ screens in 60 markets. That’s a 58% uptick over Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga‘s debut in like markets, and more than double opening bow of The Fall Guy. IMAX generated $3M on 386 screens overseas for an $8.2M WW take on the large format. The global cume currently stands at $104.6M, though it will have to quadruple that to reach the $424.4M worldwide heights of Bad Boys For Life.

4. The Watchers
Warner Bros. Pictures | NEW
$7M Domestic Weekend
$11.7M Global Cume

The 2024 horror curse continues to fulfill its dark prophecy as Warners’ The Watchers whiffed on all fronts with an estimated $7M on 3,351 screens for a $2,089 PSA to take the #4 spot. Word of mouth will not help the directorial debut of Ishana Shyamalan with 29% critical/52% audience on RT, a “C-” CinemaScore, and 55% positive Post Trak.

This was a negative pickup for WB/New Line, who traded big on the Shyamalan name brand in marketing, leaning on the spotty notoriety of producer M. Night Shyamalan, Ishana’s father. That connection, nepotism optics, and the ensuing criticism over the film’s “twist” proved to be a liability, as was the esoteric folk horror tone as well as lack of a clear logline.

Here’s the 3-Day breakdown:

• Friday – $2.9M
• Saturday – $2.35M
• Sunday – $1.75M

Despite Dakota Fanning in the lead, the audience leaned largely male with 53%, with the age demos split fairly evenly between 27% 18-34 and 28% 25-34 on the PG-13 title. Here’s what demographic split looked like:

• 54% Caucasian
• 24% Hispanic,
• 13% African‐American
• 9% Asian/Native‐American

Top 10 DMA markets:

• 1. Los Angeles
• 2. New York
• 3. Dallas
• 4. Houston
• 5. San Francisco
• 6. Chicago
• 7. Phoenix
• 8. Atlanta
• 9. Philadelphia
• 10. Sacramento

Top 10 locations overall:

• 1. AMC Burbank
• 2. AMC Empire New York
• 3. AMC Grove Los Angeles
• 4. AMC Century City Los Angeles
• 5. AMC Americana Los Angeles
• 6. AMC Universal Citywalk Los Angeles
• 7. Cinemark Pharr Town Center (Rio Grande Valley, TX)
• 8. Cinemark Rialto Los Angeles
• 9. Harkins Estrella Falls Phoenix
• 10. Santikos Palladium San Antonio

Internationally The Watchers took in an estimated $4.7M from 7,170 screens in 65 overseas markets, where it performed on-par or better than Candyman and Don’t Breathe 2 in many of those markets. Top markets were Mexico ($614K), UK ($486K), and Spain ($342K). Global cume stands at $11.7M.

Other Notable Performances

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes continues to perform well, dropping 40% to take the #5 spot with $5.4M. The sequel pushed ahead of post-apocalyptic competition Furiosa (at #6 with $4.245M). With $149,772,773 million so far, it has now shot past the domestic performance of previous entry War for the Planet of the Apes ($146,880,162 million) and will overtake the global performance of Tim Burton’s 2001 Planet of the Apes ($362,211,740 million) within the week. Global cume for Kingdom stands at $359,772,773 million. The performance now places the current Apes franchise in the $2 Billion club worldwide.

A blast from the past made a mark at the box office this weekend as New Line/WB’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) got a Fathom Events re-release on 1529 screens. This was likely to grease the wheels for WB’s animated feature The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, opening December 13. The projected 3-Day take for the original Peter Jackson fantasy saga is $6,219,658 million. Here’s the breakdown per-film, which earned enough to land #8-10 slots in the Top 10:

• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – $2,441,275 million
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – $1,914,981 million
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – $1,863,402 million

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates | Weekend 23 – 2024

Total Domestic Estimates: $102.6M | (-38% vs 2023)