Upon its debut in 2020, Bad Boys for Life set box office milestones with a pretty huge opening weekend, and an impressive overall haul. With a sequel quickly greenlit as a result, the 2024 movie schedule saw Bad Boys: Ride or Die set to be one of its potentially huge hits.
Of course, a lot has happened since the release of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s legacy-quel; and that infamous 2022 Oscar Slap is going to give some box office forecasters some concern. But as an unnamed source recently admitted on record, it’s going to take more than that to push away Smith’s career. As one would assume, the legendary actor’s career is going to come down to one overriding factor: box office.
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die’s Importance To Will Smith’s Career
An anonymous source spoke with People about the potential for Will Smith’s altercation with Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars to be a spoiler for directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s new sequel. And in their case for why this incident won’t be a problem for Bad Boys 4’s opening, this mysterious party admitted the following as their view on Will’s cinematic future:
Bad Boys is not a risk. It's a good piece to see him soar. A talent as ambitious and financially successful as Will does not go away with one mistake. He needs to keep box-office success alive.
If we’re going by the critical reaction for this latest entry, there might be a problem. In CinemaBlend’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die review, our own Eric Eisenberg rated the film at a 2 out of 5; going as far as claiming that the plot contains “a remix of elements from some of the weakest chapters of the Fast & Furious franchise.”
Eisenberg did also note that die hard Bad Boys fans will be the ones to get the most out of this entry, which could be seen as a potential silver lining. It also ties into something recent remarks that Smith himself had to offer on the subject of cinematic success.
Will Smith May Have Found Bad Boys' Biggest Obstacle
Coincidentally, Will Smith was asked about the definition of a box office hit, while he guest starred on Hot Ones’ latest episode. In between committing to a wing of Double Comfort’s Seeing Double hot sauce, the Men in Black star and former king of the Fourth of July box office laid down these thoughts on why landing “a hit” is so elusive:
The definition of a hit is still pretty much the same. Essentially it's just harder to get one…you used to be able to put some explosions in the trailer, and a couple of good jokes, and people were there. And television is so good, there are things that people just aren’t going to leave their house for anymore. There’s definitely a higher demand for a certain type of film for people to leave their homes.
With this in mind, the most important question surrounding Bad Boys: Ride or Die’s release into the wild is pretty clear. It’s not a matter of will the Oscar Slap spoil Will Smith’s success; it’s will audiences who love the Bad Boys movies feel motivated enough to leave their homes to see it? The answer to that very question could be what determines Will Smith’s box office future, especially when previous pictures like Gemini Man and Collateral Beauty still stand out as infamous bombs.
This is the weekend where Bad Boys fans should ride together, as Bad Boys: Ride or Die hits theaters in early showings tonight. Meanwhile, those with access to a Hulu subscription can refresh their memories on Bad Boys for Life, as that's the streaming home for that film, at the time of publication.
