Bad Boys: Ride or Die Races to Explosive Start at Box Office

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is tracking for a $40 million-plus weekend after it debuted to $5.9 million in Thursday screenings. That number is just shy of 2020’s Bad Boys for Life, which did $6.36 million and ended up making $62.5 million in its opening weekend. One difference: that was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Weekend, which means it had a Sunday bump from all the people who didn’t have to go to work on Monday. This year’s box office has been pretty anemic so far, so exhibitors would certainly love to come at least close to that, though.

There’s no word yet on how The Watchers, this weekend’s other big release, performed in previews. That movie is the directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana. Unfortunately, that’s a lot less likely to breathe life into the weekend, with dismal reviews and poor audience scores. Bad Boys, meanwhile, has 97% positive audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and great response from departing audiences at Comscore’s PostTrak.

Bad Boys For Life comparisons are going to be common, but remember that by the time that movie came out, there hadn’t been a new Bad Boys film in more than 15 years. That isn’t true this time around, so all that pent up excitement is absent and that could contribute to a lack of urgency for opening weekend. Given the strong word of mouth, don’t be surprised if this makes a lot less than Bad Boys For Life but also has strong legs and doesn’t drop much between this weekend and next.

In Bad Boys: Ride or Die, wise-cracking Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back in action when they learn that their former captain was posthumously framed for working for a drug cartel, igniting a mission to uncover the truth of the conspiracy to find out who set up their late superior. Not only do they hope to restore the honor of their late captain, but also find out who set him up and who might be putting targets on their backs next.

Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, Joe Pantoliano, and DJ Khaled all return to star in the fourth entry in the series, which adds Tasha Smith, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Melanie Liburd, and Tiffany Haddish. Bad Boys: Ride or Die also brings back Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Bad Boys: Ride or Die releases in theaters on June 7th.