Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reach heights the movies haven’t seen since Oppenheimer.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die has notched an important Summer box office achievement that might bode well for the season. In the United States, no R-rated movie has opened with more than $5.9 million on preview night since Oppenheimer. Not a week goes by where there isn’t worrying about the state of the theater industry. This summer especially, people are nervous about the first few releases of 2024. Dune: Part Two is firmly in the rear-view mirror at this point and Bad Boys: Ride or Die could be the fun feature for older fans that theaters have been looking for. (s/o to Discussing Film for pointing this out.) This summer, family movies have been the only features that have attained those massive box office hauls that movie studios are dreaming of.
There’s a very real possibility that Bad Boys: Ride or Die could end up bringing in $40 million at the box office this weekend. Back in 2020, Bad Boys for Life did about $6.36 million. (A completely different theater atmosphere pre-COVID 19 pandemic here in the United States though!) Considering the two are so close, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah should be celebrated for their efforts here. Social media reactions to Bad Boys: Ride or Die have been very positive as well. That’s another key factor in movies hitting their “goals” in 2024, they have to be something that at least gets theater-goers talking.
Will Smith & Martin Lawrence Show There’s Nothing Wrong With Getting Old
The biggest strength of this film would have to be the camaraderie between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Seeing the duo play Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett has become a cozy feeling for a lot of theater goers. In a time where it can be a big ask to get a family out to the cinema, Smith still looks like the mega-watt draw he’s been for three decades now. (Also of note, isn’t it hilarious that numerous voices in the media tried to con the entire viewing public into thinking they hated him for a rare lapse in judgement right before the movie industry would need its biggest stars more than ever? Weird little world we got here!) So, yeah seeing Smith and Lawrence bounce off of each other still does numbers.
Another underrated facet of this film franchise is that both of these men have allowed themselves to age pretty gracefully. The filmmakers still ask both actors to take on some wicked sequences. But, there are also moments of reflection in Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die that openly ask how long Mike and Marcus can conceivably do this whole buddy cop routine. (It feels like almost three solid entries where there’s a meta question of how much Lawrence still has in the tank. To his credit, he says that his back still works and we ball until it doesn’t anymore.)
That’s a relatable struggle. The world is changing and sometimes you can’t fight to be stuck in amber completely. A hint of metacommentary that doesn’t completely upend the viewer but gently might make them consider their own personal journeys over these decades. Yes, the theaters are going to need “grown up” movies to pull their weight just as much as animated features. But, the middle ground popcorn feature really feels like its got a long time to ride before the wheels fall off that particular premise.
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