Bad Boys for Life, the first film in the Bad Boys franchise since 2003 (and the first not to be directed by Michael Bay), opened strong last weekend, selling just under $60 million domestically and well over $100 million worldwide.
A fourth film immediately went into pre-production. Not kidding.
That’s how it works now. Franchise film? Stars? Good opening weekend? Make us another ASAP! So look out for a fourth Bad Boys film within probably 18 months or so. The flick currently holds a score of 59/100 on Metacritic. That being said, I hear it’s a real good time. And I believe it, as stars Martin Lawrence and (gag) Will Smith play off each other very naturally.
Also at the Box
It’s only January and we already have a frontrunner for the Worst Film of the Year honors: Stephen Gaghan’s Dolittle. (See the Whatzup review on Page 19.) This one looks downright unwatchable to me, with star Robert Downey Jr. doing some odd accent and giving a performance that just doesn’t work. Despite terrible word of mouth and a Metacritic score of 27/100, the movie opened at No. 2 in the U.S.. selling $30 million domestically ($57 million worldwide).
Look for this one to struggle to earn back its $175 million production budget. Here’s hoping this flop brings the increasingly insufferable RDJ back down to earth a bit.
Sam Mendes’ 1917 continued to roll, taking the No. 3 spot at last weekend’s domestic box office with another $22 million in sales, upping the flick’s 10-day wide release domestic sales total to $77 million. With almost $150 million in worldwide sales already, the case for 1917 as a Best Picture favorite continues to swell.
Jumanji: The Next Level keeps on filling seats, taking the No. 4 spot at last weekend’s box with another $9.5 million in sales, upping the flick’s worldwide sales total to over $700 million. Does this mean that The Rock is officially an all-time movie star? Has he hit that status yet? Does this film (his 15th or so to do big money) make him legit? Or is he still just the charming big guy who used to be a wrestler?
The Rise of Skywalker rounded out last weekend’s Top 5 with another $8.4 million in sales, bringing the flick’s domestic total so far to a disappointing $492 million. Add in sales abroad and Skywalker, said to be the final film in the “Skywalker storyline,” has now made just over $1 billion dollars. And yeah, that’s a lot of bread, but not for what was expected of this film.
New this Week
Two movies open wide this weekend, starting with horror flick The Turning, which stars Mackenzie Davis and Finn Wolfhard. There’s also an actress named Karen Egan in the film who has, for my money, one of the funniest IMDb profile photos I’ve seen. I recommend looking it up. Besides that, this film looks pretty lame to me.
Also out everywhere is Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, which stars Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, and Eddie Marsan. It’s one of those Guy Ritchie movies filled with loud, cocky, awful white men acting cool. So if that’s your thing, you’re in luck. Me? I’ll be catching up on all the great films from 2019 I still haven’t seen.
