With this kind of money, we may see Bad Boys Will Smith and Martin Lawrence tearing up a nursing home someday. Why not? They clearly have great love for each other and fans are loving Bad Boys for Life, the third movie in the Bad Boys franchise. The movie was released on January 17, 2020 and now here we are on Leap Year Weekend 2020 (that's a thing I just invented) and the movie is still crushing at the box office.
This weekend, Bad Boys for Life is hitting another box office milestone by crossing $400 million worldwide. Heading into this weekend, it already had more than $193 million at the domestic North American box office and more than $200 million from the international box office.
Bad Boys for Life is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2020. That's not going to last forever, but damn. It's been 17 years since the previous movie and it's doing this well! It's also the biggest January release and, maybe it goes without saying, the highest-grossing Bad Boys movie to date. (It's still far from Will Smith's highest-grossing movie ever, although he did set that new record just last year.)
With some major movies, the international box office is waaaay higher than the domestic take, but in this case it's evenly split. Fans just dig this movie. Bad Boys for Life has a 96% audience score from 41,365 Rotten Tomatoes users and a 7.1/10 rating from about the same number of IMDb users.
Who has been watching Bad Boys for Life around the world? According to Deadline, the top 10 overseas markets for Bad Boys for Life are the United Kingdom with $20.2 million, Germany close behind with $16.9 million, then France with $14.1 million, Australia with $12.6 million, Mexico -- which isn't included in the North American box office -- with $12.5 million, Russia with $11.9 million, Saudi Arabia with $7.5 million, Spain with $7.1 million, Netherlands with $5.7 million, and the United Arab Emirates with $5.3 million.
Over here on the domestic side, Bad Boys for Life has been quietly keeping up with the new kids on the block for the past month-and-a-half. Last weekend (Feb. 21-23), Bad Boys 3 took 4th place with $5.8 million. That's even after losing 213 theaters to play on 2,972 screens. This weekend, Bad Boys for Life may still end up in the top four, behind The Invisible Man, The Call of the Wild, and Sonic the Hedgehog, per Box Office Mojo.
It's pretty amazing, especially since it's been almost two decades since the previous Bad Boys movie. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence first introduced Detective Sergeant Mike Lowrey and Detective Sergeant Marcus Burnett back in Bad Boys in 1995. That movie made $141.4 million worldwide at the time, not adjusting for inflation. The Bad Boys returned in 2003 with Bad Boys II, earning Detective Lieutenant ranks. That movie made $273,339,556 at the time.
Even adjusting for inflation, it looks like the world is only gaining more interest in these characters. So it's no wonder that Bad Boys 4 is currently in the works. Bad Boys for Life directors Adil & Bilall certainly hope they get to direct it and, after listening to original director Michael Bay's advice, it seems like they would be good choices to continue.
We don't know when Bad Boys 4 might be showing up, but -- when it does -- will you be buying another ticket?
