”Bad Boys: Ride or Die” gave the box office a desperately needed jolt, but the action-comedy fourquel can’t salvage the summer season by itself.
Although the newest “Bad Boys,” reuniting Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Miami cops, arrived on the higher end of expectations with $56 million in domestic ticket sales, the year-to-date deficit actually grew more pronounced. Heading into the weekend, ticket sales were 24% behind 2023 and now overall revenues are lagging by 26% according to Comscore.
“Bad Boys 4” isn’t to blame for the decline; analysts believe it’s the lack of enthusiasm for other titles in the marketplace. Four of the other top five releases — Sony’s animated “The Garfield Movie” ($10 million), Paramount’s fantasy comedy “IF” ($8 million), the Warner Bros. supernatural thriller and fellow newcomer “The Watchers” ($7.4 million) and Disney and 20th Century’s sequel “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” ($5.4 million) — brought in scraps.
So, comparisons to the same weekend in summer 2023 are tough because several movies were actively selling tickets: “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” topped the box office with $61 million, while “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” collected $55.5 million in its sophomore outing and “Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” added $23.1 million in its third weekend of release. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “The Boogeyman,” the other titles in the top five, each brought in around $7 million.
“There was simply not enough collective box office horsepower to move the needle versus the very tough comparisons a year ago,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Overall, it’s been a disconcertingly slow summer with big-budget blockbusters like Universal’s action comedy “The Fall Guy” ($85 million domestically; $165 million globally) and the Warner Bros. sci-fi prequel “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” ($58 million domestically; $144.4 million globally) falling short of expectations. But there’s an adage that moviegoing begets moviegoing, so analysts are hopeful that “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” will finally bring a little sustained heat to popcorn season. Momentum will be crucial as Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” (June 14) and “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 28) gear up to pop in June, while “Despicable Me 4” (July 3), “Twisters” (19) and Marvel’s “Deadpool &Wolverine” (July 28) look to bring a collective boost in July.