Weekend box office – Bad Boys and Gentlemen shine

I watched Bad Boys for Life this past weekend, and I honestly enjoyed the hell out of it! It wasn’t just good enough to wipe the poopy taste of Bad Boys II out of my mouth, still lingering after all these years, but it actually made me instantly want more of Smith and Lawrence doing their thing together again. We already knew more was coming as Sony greenlit a fourth film following Bad Boys for Life’s unexpectedly great opening, but now you can probably expect that development to be fast-tracked as the action-comedy threequel stayed at the top of the US box office for a second winning, again surpassing expectations.

Bad Boys for Life dropped just 46% as it added another $34 million to take its domestic earnings to $120 million. As the film opened wide in most international markets, it also earned another $42 million which puts its worldwide gross at $215 million after just 10 days. With a $90 million price tag (and whatever marketing costs), that means that the film is most definitely turning a profit now. And with no big release set for this coming weekend, it will more than likely stay in the top spot again.

In second place, 1917 rode its recent awards buzz (it won Best Picture and Best Director at the Golden Globes, and is a firm favourite for the Oscars) as it dropped just 28% to earn $15.8 million. With another $23.7 million coming from international markets, Sam Mendes’ WWI masterpiece has now crossed the $200 million milestone. Rounding out the top three we have the beleaguered Dolittle which audiences are being way kinder to than critics. Well, relatively anyway as the Robert Downey Jr.-led fantasy adventure may have earned another $12.5 million domestically and about the same from international markets, but it’s still way off the mark from being commercially successful. At a $91 million worldwide total, it’s still undoubtedly a gigantic flop for the $175 million production.

In fourth place, we find the first newcomer as Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen opened with $11 million. That may not sound like much, but the British gangster flick only had half of the cinema count of the top films giving it the second-highest per-theatre-average in the top ten at $5 094 (only Bad Boys was higher with $9 006). Based on this performance, the studio is planning a wide expansion in the US next week. The film has already been playing in a handful of international markets and will start expanding in other regions over the next few weeks.

Skipping over Jumanji: The Next Level, which keeps chugging along in fifth place with $7.9 million, the second newcomer, Universal’s horror flick The Turning, opened in sixth place. The film has been trashed by both critics and audience alike (RT score, IMDB score and Cinemascore are all in the dumps) and its box office earnings reflected that as it could only manage a $7.3 million opening. It played in a dozen international markets as well, but it couldn’t even crack a million there.

And in a final bit of unrelated news, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may be limping to its final box office tally, but it still managed to do enough this weekend past to become only the 15th film in history to earn more than $500 million at the domestic box office.

Let’s see what the rest of the US box office chart looks like:

NE = New Entry

Last Updated: January 27, 2020