Bad Boys: Ride Or Die Is A Big Win For The Summer 2024 Box Office With A Great Opening Weekend

Things have not gone as hoped for the movie industry on the whole thus far in summer 2024. It was anticipated that the blockbuster season would be a bit slower than normal due to last year's labor battles in Hollywood, and there have been some success stories, but the disappointments have outnumbered the wins.

Thankfully, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's Bad Boys: Ride Or Die has arrived and injected some much needed energy into the box office with a stellar opening weekend.

The action film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers both debuted in wide release this past Friday and did their part to shake up the Top 10 (not to mention re-releases of Peter Jackson's first two Lord Of The Rings movies). Check out the full chart below and join me after for analysis.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die Destroys Expectations With A Massive Global Debut

When prognostications for the weekend box office arrived online in the middle of last week, the predictions were notably conservative – which was understandable given what has been going on in theaters in the last few weeks. Deadline reported that Sony was looking for something in the range of $40 million domestically and a $75 million debut globally for Bad Boys: Ride Or Die. As things turned out, both of those bars were easy to clear.

According to The Numbers, the third sequel in the Bad Boys series brought in an impressive $56 million over the last three days in the United States and Canada, and it made $46.6 million beyond those borders – which calculates to a $104.6 million start at the box office. Given that that film was made with a $100 million budget (per Variety), the title is now well on its way to being a big win.

It's arguably the second big franchise win for summer 2024 thus far alongside Wes Ball's Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, and the results are comparable. Like the Apes title, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die performed with numbers in line with its series predecessor (Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's Bad Boys For Life made $62.5 million when it opened in January 2020), and hopes have been raised that it can match a $400+ million global total (Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is still climbing to that goal, having made $359.8 million in the last five weeks.

A $56 million start is good enough to be counted as the fifth best opening weekend for any film in 2024 thus far (we're notably approaching its midpoint at the end of the month). The movie easily jumped over Gil Kenan's Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire for the spot (the horror comedy brought in $45 million when it hit theaters in March) – and depending on how things go when the final numbers come in, the movie may end up being called the fourth biggest debut of year. The current ticket sales estimate puts the new release behind Mike Mitchell's Kung Fu Panda 4 by less than $2 million, and that distance could be covered by a successful Sunday.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die has also gotten a reception that could result in the movie demonstrating some long legs as we get deeper into summer. While critics are a bit mixed on the sequel (I personally couldn't give it better than two stars in my CinemaBlend review), the 97 percent Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes and the "A-" grade from CinemaScore surveys paint a picture that general movie-goers are loving it.

The release schedule in June could also lead to a nice long run for the blockbuster. The coming weeks have plenty for families (including Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2 and Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage's Despicable Me 4) and there are some standout genre titles (like Michael Sarnoski's A Quiet Place: Day One and Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1), audiences won't see a big action-centric title in theaters until mid-July when Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters arrives on the big screen. If all goes well, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die has a path to become one of the biggest success stories of the year.

Arriving In The Shadow Of Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, The Watchers Has To Settle For A Fourth Place Start

With Bad Boys: Ride Or Die guaranteed to win the box office this past weekend, the folks at Warner Bros. opted to go with a counterprogramming move by releasing The Watchers... and it lived up to limited expectations. It got a cold reception from most critics, and a "C-" CinemaScore grade suggests that people aren't loving it, but it did still manage to make $7 million over the last three days, which was good enough to land fourth place in the Top 10 (behind Mark Dindal's The Garfield Movie and John Krasinski's IF).

The numbers aren't terribly impressive, but there's a fairly good chance that the movie will be seen as a box office success. Budget information doesn't appear to be available online, but watching the movie (which mostly takes place in one location), it's hard to imagine that it cost more than $10 million to produce. Including ticket sales from overseas, The Watchers has already made $11.7 million globally. It will likely perform a massive weekend-to-weekend dip this time next week, but the magic of these small budget horror titles is that they can turn a quick profit even with a mediocre start.

Looking ahead to next week, movie fans should get to see an interesting box office showdown, as Inside Out 2 is expected to be a big hit, and how that will impact ticket sales for Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is a big question mark. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for a breakdown of how things go, and check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the titles heading to theaters in the weeks and months ahead.