FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Exhibitors and distribution execs, even non-Sony ones, are breathing a sigh of relief as it looks like the Will Smith-Martin Lawrence fourthquel Bad Boys: Ride or Die is heading to $50M this weekend at 3,885 theaters. This is after a $20M-$21M Friday, which includes Thursday night previews of $5.9M. Last night’s evening shows were solid, and they held up against the first night of NBA Finals. Very good news after this summer has seen such notable event movies like The Fall Guy and Furiosa underperforming.
Bad Boys 4 has all the octane from PLFs and Imax screens.
Sony can crow further about its hold on the No. 2 spot this weekend with The Garfield Movie, which is seeing a third frame of $9M-$10M, -32%, for a running total of $68.6M on the high end by Sunday at 3,959 theaters.
Third place belongs to Paramount’s family movie IF, with a fourth weekend of $7.1M at 3,582 theaters after $2M Friday, -32%, for a running total of $92.6M by Sunday. That will be 1% ahead of Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy at the same point in time; that 2021 pic ended its U.S./Canada run at $121.6M.
Crashing in fourth place is New Line‘s Ishana Shyamalan-directed thriller, The Watchers, with $3M today, including $1M previews, for what’s looking like a $6M-$7M start at 3,351 theaters. M. Night Shyamalan, who produced his daughter’s movies, also self finances them and then sells them to the studio. In the wake of working with Universal, Warner Bros. attracted him over to their lot. I’m told that the studio shelled out $30M before P&A for The Watchers alone. This movie is not a Lionsgate genre thrifty price-profit special.
‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’
20th Century
And by the end of this weekend, 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes from filmmaker Wes Ball can beat its chest for surpassing the domestic gross of the previous 2017 movie from Matt Reeves, War for the Planet of the Apes ($146.88M) with $150M. Currently the highest grossing movie of the summer will see a fifth weekend of $5.75M, -36%.
FRIDAY AM: 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.
‘The Watchers’
Warner Bros.
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.) The 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