‘Bad Boys For Life’ so good with $68m+

WHEN it comes to releasing a long-delayed sequel, or rebooting an old popular franchise, it’s risky business.

Box Office: ‘Bad Boys 3’ Dominates Over ‘Dolittle’ With $24M Friday

Yes, sometimes, there’s slam dunks like Jurassic World, but then you have disasters like Terminator: Dark Fate. But with Bad Boys for Life, the third title in the franchise in 17 years with two stars, who some may have believed to be on the wane (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence), Sony has resurrected a hit with the threequel set to open to a great $68.4M over 4-days.

That’s the second-best MLK weekend ever, after American Sniper ($107.2M) and ahead of Ride Along ($48.6M). The threequel also reps the best opening for the action cop franchise, besting the $46.5M of 2003’s Bad Boys II, and it’s an amount which is currently set to best the entire domestic gross of the first 1995 Bad Boys, which finaled at $65.8M. Things are going so well for Bad Boys for Life this weekend, Sony is already prepping a fourth film.

There’s been some real, blood, sweat and tears in birthing this third movie on behalf of the Culver City studio, jumping around Smith’s production schedule, having Joe Carnahan and then having him fall out as director, and hopping the release date around the calendar several times. Initially the movie was supposed to come out on Feb. 17, 2017 (dated back in August 2015) then eventually it was pulled off the calendar in August 2017, then placed back on the release schedule with this year’s MLK weekend.

Let’s face it, it’s been quite a gamble for Sony when it comes to reigniting their old IP, a matter of a heads or tails coin flip. For every Jumanji and Little Women, there’s duds like The Grudge and Charlie’s Angels. Zombieland: Double Tap was OK at $121.7M WW, but it only made $19.4M more than its first chapter from ten years ago. Sony hit the hammer on a third Bad Boys again, and again, and again, and they got it so right, with audiences enjoying it with an A Cinemascore (just like the last two movies) and 5 stars on PostTrak.

Reboots are complicated, and it’s not just a matter of plug and play (as Skydance and Paramount learned the hard way by slapping James Cameron on as producer and story by, alongside Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, on Terminator: Dark Fate.

What was the secret sauce to making Bad Boys for Life work? The whole conceit that the movie is about the transition of young bucks becoming elders, topped off by the cadence between Lawrence and Smith. That’s the way guys talk to each other about what’s going on, and that’s why the franchise holds so much weight.

Says social media monitor RelishMix about the online chatter they noticed in advance of this weekend, “Both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have their fans, and this core contingent is excited by the materials they’re seeing for Bad Boys for Life.  As for newcomers, Kate Castillo is getting some shout-outs, as are Vanessa Hudgens and some of the other new team members.  It’s clear it’s about the action for those willing to make the trip to theaters, the action and that Porsche.”

And social media was scorching for the threequel, with its total followers across Facebook, FB video views, Twitter, YouTube views and Instagram counting a huge 900M, in large part to a monstrous Black Eyed Peas song contributing to the reach.  YouTube views for the movie are at 575.6M alone for the film, with RelishMix noting that “even without the Peas song, the reach easily exceeds this level.”

The pic’s viral video rate is massive at 25:1, with a mix of official clips from ESPN and Telemundo. Together, Smith and Lawrence count 137.5M fans, with Smith accounting for 86% of that tally. Like Dwayne Johnson, Smith is dominating his social feeds to alert the world that he’s got a new movie out, and both Lawrence and him have been pushing the pic since it began shooting in Miami when they announced production on Instagram. That post alone drew 11.1M on Smith’s handle.

Meanwhile that Black Eyed Peas and J Balvin song cut for the film “Ritmo” has clocked close to 411M views since Oct. 10. Being shared on the Peas’ VEVO YouTube channel (6.6M) also didn’t hurt.

“Since then, the video has grown to account for 44% of this movie’s entire social reach. Still, there’s no denying the re-posts of the music video – not to mention the immense views for other Bad Boys clips.  The point is, this music video seems to have kick-started the awareness for Bad Boys for Life, whereas last November’s Charlie’s Angels (also a Sony release with a huge music video contributing to its social campaign) seems more one-dimensional, in that fan listened and liked the video – but failed to see its association to the music with the strength that Bad Boys seems to have,” adds RelishMix.

In fact, if we you minus the Peas music video and Smith’s social media following, Bad Boys for Life would still be left with a near half billion worth of followers (well ahead of the action comedy average social media universe count of 156M).