EXCLUSIVE: Seventeen years after the release of Bad Boys II, Sony’s Bad Boys For Life dominated domestic, overseas and global turnstiles in its mid-January debut. On Saturday, it will cross $400 million globally, with current cumes through Thursday at $193.1M domestic and $204.1M from the international box office. Bad Boys 4 is in the works.
The $90M Adil & Bilall-helmed threequel held the top spot at offshore turnstiles for three weekends, seeing strong holds throughout. Boosted by positive response, and Will Smith’s global appeal, the cop flick has now taken the franchise past $800M worldwide.
The Top 10 markets to date are the UK ($20.2M), Germany ($16.9M), France ($14.1M), Australia ($12.6M), Mexico ($12.5M), Russia ($11.9M), Saudi Arabia ($7.5M), Spain ($7.1M), Netherlands ($5.7M) and the UAE ($5.3M). Germany, the UK and France were the biggest markets on the previous installment. Asian markets outside Japan didn’t really factor on that movie, and while the landscape has changed since then, they did not weigh heavily towards this one which also notably opened amid the beginning of the coronavirus situation.
Promotional efforts overseas, where the last film finaled at an unadjusted $134.7M, included Smith, Martin Lawrence, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the directors doing press in Paris, including surprising a packed room of fans at a screening. Specialized content was crafted with social media influencers and channels for the UK’s LADbible and Unilad; Russia’s most popular social network, VK; and top French influencers McFly & Carlito (the latter garnering 3M views within 24 hours).
The team was also in Berlin for the German premiere and social media integration, including a sing-off challenge with Smith and Lawrence against fan-favorite players from FC Bayern München, as well as engaging with leading German sports/comedy/music influencer, Bodyformus.
In Madrid, Smith and Lawrence appeared on variety program El Hormiguero and participated in a digital stunt with top YouTuber, El Rubius, drawing 8M views in 24 hours. In Miami, the duo worked with Australia’s The Project, Brazil’s Omelete and popular Mexican influencer, El Scorpion. Additional efforts included local premieres and press for the directors in Amsterdam and their hometown of Brussels in time for those markets’ openings.
Bad Boys For Life was produced by Smith, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Doug Belgrad’s 2.0. label.