Sony‘s R-rated Bad Boys: Ride or Die did $5.875 million in domestic box office Thursday in previews that began at 3 p.m., a total that is actually only 8% off from the previews of the franchise’s previous long-awaited threequel, 2020’s Bad Boys for Life, which did $6.36M.
That’s a great start for Bad Boys: Ride or Die as it enters what has been an embattled marketplace due to lack of movie inventory from the strikes, not to mention a lack of mass-appealing movies — that is outside of Disney/20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which just crossed $144.3M. Audience reaction last night to the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence reteam was 5 stars and 88% positive on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak, while Rotten Tomatoes audience score stands at 97%.
Demos, which change throughout the weekend, were 36% Black, 29% Hispanic and Latino, 20% Caucasian, 10% Asian, and 4% other. Men over 25 were dominant at 40% followed by women over 25 at 38%.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die saw a $23.6M first day, which led to an ultimate best-in-franchise three-day total of $62.5M and a four-day of $73M, but keep in mind that the threequel was working off the heat of a 17-year gap between sequels, not to mention it was MLK weekend. If all goes well, Bad Boys: Ride or Die winds up north of $40M.
New Line‘s PG-13-rated The Watchers, the feature directorial debut of Ishana Shyamalan, is showing previews of $1M at 3,000 locations. That amount of Thursday night cash is on par with Universal’s Abigail. However, reviews are sour here at 29% Rotten, and the PostTrak exits were really bad at 1 1/2 stars, and 52% positive. Yikes. This despite a rather even turnout among age demos with 36% men over 25, 24% women under 25, 20% women over 25, and 20% men under 25. The projection for this movie heading into the weekend was $8M-$10M. Abigail opened to $10.2M off an 85% Rotten Tomatoes audience score.
The rest of Thursday shook out as follows:
1.) Garfield Movie (Sony) 4,108 theaters Thu $1.5M (-7% from Wed), Wk $21M, Total $58.6M/Wk 2
2.) IF (Par) 3,783 theaters, Thu $1.2M (-7%), Wk $15.9M, Total $85.5M/Wk 3
3.) Furiosa (WB) 3,864 theaters, Thu $730K (-38%), Wk $15.5M, Total $54.4M/Wk 2
4.) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (20th) 3,450 theaters, Thu $825K (-18%), Wk $13.1M, Total $144.3M/Wk 4
5.) Fall Guy (Uni) 2,826 theaters Thu $437K (-17%), Wk $6.3M, Total $82.4M/Wk 5
Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist (Fath) 1,098 theaters, Thu $602K, 2-day cume $2.4M/Wk 1