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Bad Boys for Life's box office success, explained

Photo credit: Sony Pictures
Photo credit: Sony Pictures

From Digital Spy

There wasn't much expectation that Bad Boys for Life would be worth the wait, but it's defied all pre-release negativity with an excellent box-office opening.

The long-delayed third movie shot to a superb $62.5 million opening in the US, rising to $73 million across the four-day Martin Luther King Jr weekend. That's the second-biggest opening over the MLK weekend, behind American Sniper.

Not bad for a movie that was only expected to make around $40 million during its US opening.

Photo credit: Sony Pictures
Photo credit: Sony Pictures

Bad Boys for Life has also taken $39 million overseas so far, meaning that it's almost at $120 million worldwide and is set to become the highest-grossing movie of the trilogy (currently Bad Boys II's $273.3 million).

So how did Bad Boys for Life succeed where recent franchise revivals, like Charlie's Angels and Terminator: Dark Fate, failed?

It's not as simple as saying that it's just because the movie turned out to actually be quite good.

Sure, it helped that Bad Boys for Life ended up getting good reviews and is building strong word of mouth. It certainly would have convinced people who perhaps would otherwise have not bothered to see it at the cinema.

Photo credit: Sony Pictures
Photo credit: Sony Pictures

A key factor in Bad Boys for Life's success was timing – and Dolittle's failure.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Jumanji: The Next Level are slowing down at the box office, opening the path up for a big new release to make its mark over the profitable MLK weekend.

It might have been thought that Dolittle could have been that movie, given it had a wider potential audience thanks to its family-friendly rating. But that movie was savaged by critics and is likely to be the first big flop of 2020 unless it does supremely well overseas.

So Bad Boys for Life would have been seen as the better option at the cinema and even though Oscar contender 1917 is still doing well, the two movies aren't competing for the same audiences, so there's room for both.

Photo credit: Sony Pictures
Photo credit: Sony Pictures

Weirdly, the long wait for the movie could have helped it too.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have been open in saying they waited for the right script to do a third movie. That's a common line we hear about most sequels, but here, it genuinely felt like if they didn't want to do it, it wouldn't happen.

As Terminator: Dark Fate, Men in Black: International, Charlie's Angels and more have shown, it's not enough to have a familiar name.

You need the ingredients that made the original movies work and it needs to feel like it's not just a cash grab. Smith was involved as a producer on the movie, adding to the sense that it was only being done because it was worth it.

Photo credit: Ben Rothstein - Sony Pictures
Photo credit: Ben Rothstein - Sony Pictures

And as Comscore's Paul Dergarabedian told Variety, Sony weren't afraid to show that while they're still Bad Boys, it wouldn't be the same.

"The marketing campaign showcased that, while the same ingredients that made the first Bad Boys movies so beloved would definitely be included in this reboot, there would be a fresh enough take on the concept to make it not feel like a tired rehash," he explained.

Following the success of Bad Boys for Life, Sony have started work on Bad Boys 4 which was set up by the end of the third movie.

The challenge now will be to ensure that the franchise doesn't just become another series run into the ground by sub-par sequels, attempting (and failing) to capture the same magic.

They may be "Bad Boys for life", but sometimes, it's best to end to leave fans wanting more.

Bad Boys for Life is in cinemas now.


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