How Bad Boys For Life Made The Action So Big On A Not-So-Big Budget
If you’ve seen Bad Boys For Life, you may have been distracted by the comedic moments between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but it’s hard to miss some of the cool action set pieces, including a motorcycle chase partway through the movie and a really cool dilapidated mansion sequence later in the film. So, how did the movie make the action look so big on a not-so-big budget?
Recently, directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi have been doing the rounds promoting their new movie Bad Boys For Life, the third in the popular franchise. Ahead of its release, we learned the production budget for the film was around $90 million dollars, which is nothing to be sneezed at, but is less than the $130 million Bad Boys II allegedly used and is much less than the estimated $217 million Michael Bay’s last Transformers movie got.
Adil El Arbi said the team tried really hard to pay homage to the ‘90s and do as many practical stunts as possible in an interview with Slashfilm, and Bilall Fallah admitted they had to get creative sometimes due to the budgetary restrictions. However, the “great crew” helped matters. He noted:
So if you are ever in a position where you are trying to pull off impossibly cool shots on a medium-sized budget, the answer is to hire the best in the business to help you out. Fallah admitted in this interview that he and his co-director leaned heavily on the experience of people who have worked on big franchise films to help them realize their Bad Boys For Life dreams.
In fact, previously, the directors told CinemaBlend that they were able to ultimately work so much into Bad Boys For Life that the movie originally had too much action and Will Smith tasked them with cutting that down. Bilall Fallah previously told us:
This included cutting out the big sequence where the boys drive through the mall -- as seen in the trailer for the movie -- and more. So, ultimately, it seems they did manage to work in a lot of action set pieces with what they were given budget-wise.
Look, if you’ve seen Bad Boys For Life, you should know the action in the movie is pretty cool. However, with more action, the flick might have featured fewer comedic scenes and that’s where this threequel really hits its sweet spot, in my opinion.
CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER
Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News
Plus, if Bad Boys For Life had been more expensive to make, its intake at the box office would not be quite as impressive as it has been, and it has been impressive. The movie exceeded expectations opening weekend, making over $68 million domestically and more internationally. So far, it’s already broken records and made more than $215 million worldwide. A higher budget would mean less profit in this case.
But that box office win may be enough for filmmakers to request a wee bit more budget when Bad Boys 4 rolls around.
Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.