Last weekend, the top movie in the North American box office chart was, as expected, the classic sequel Bad Boys: Ride or Die released by Sony Pictures. The film was released in 3,885 theaters and earned $56 million in the opening box office, better than the market expectation of $50 million. This is the fourth film in the series, still starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and it has been scheduled to be released in mainland China on June 21.
Bad Boys for Life poster
The opening box office of $56 million is still a big gap from the $62.5 million opening box office of the previous film, which was the third film released in early 2020. However, according to some media, the box office performance of the third film is actually due to the dividends earned from nostalgic audiences. The second film in the series was released in the distant 2003, a full seventeen years apart from the third film. Similar situations often whet the appetite of old audiences and make the film's opening box office soar. This time, the fourth film was released only four years after the third film, and the audience's expectations for it were relatively low. The actual opening box office has exceeded the industry's expectation of $50 million, which is a good result.
One of the highlights of "Bad Boys 4" is whether one of the leading actors, Will Smith, can take this opportunity to make a comeback. At the 2022 Oscars, Smith was furious for his wife and slapped the host Chris Rock in the face. The scene has not been forgotten by the public. Therefore, Hollywood film producers have not dared to find him for cooperation projects in the past two years. Of course, past experience tells us that such off-site news will not affect the purchase intention of too many viewers in most cases. The opening box office performance of "Bad Boys 4" also fully proves this point.
According to media reports, with the release of Bad Boys 4, Smith's agent has also started to get busy, calling the top executives of various studios to ask if there are any projects suitable for Smith. This proactive approach is the first since the slapping incident. They believe that if Bad Boys 4 is successful, Smith's next movie can be launched immediately.
Another new film that was released at the same time as Bad Boys 4 is The Watchers from Warner Bros. The director of the film is Ishana Shyamalan, the daughter of Hollywood's famous thriller director M. Night Shyamalan. This film is her first feature film. Following in her father's footsteps, the film is also a mystery thriller, telling the story of mysterious creatures stalking humans in the vast forests of Ireland. It has been rated PG-13 and is aimed at the market of young audiences under 25 years old.
Poster of "Mysterious Peep"
"The View" was released in 2,890 theaters, earning only $7 million in box office, and the freshness rating on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" is only 26%. The film was invested and filmed by M. Night Shyamalan with his own money, and then Warner Bros. spent $30 million to buy the global copyright. If the publicity and distribution costs are included, "The View" is expected to cause Warner to lose a small amount of money. Ishana Shyamalan, who is only 25 years old, has only worked as an assistant in her father's crew before, and the completion of this work should also be inseparable from her father's help.
Overall, the total North American box office this weekend was only $104 million, making it the worst June weekend in the past 23 years. The last June weekend with a box office below $104 million was in mid-June 2001, but the $98 million weekend box office at that time was nearly double the actual number of admissions compared to the past three days.
