Bad Boys: Ride or Die Box Office Forecast Predicts Massive Opening Weekend (2024)

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s tumultuous, touching and hilarious on-screen friendship as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett reignites this June, and the fourth entry in the Bad Boys franchise looks to heat up the Silver Screen during the summer movie season. And, at the time of this writing, the long-range financial forecast predicts that Bad Boys: Ride or Die will boast a massive opening weekend in the neighborhood of $50 million to $60 million domestically (per Boxoffice Pro).

If the estimates hold up, Bad Boys: Ride or Die will post the highest opening-weekend numbers of the entire franchise, except for Bad Boys for Life (2020). The third installment came in hot with an opening-weekend take of $62.5 million, even though the movie dropped less than two months before the World Health Organization “characterized the [COVID-19] outbreak as a pandemic,” according to the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases (NFID).

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

R

Action

Adventure

Comedy

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the fourth installment in the action-comedy film series starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The series centers on hard-boiled Miami detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, who take on dangerous drug kingpins and thwart dangerous schemes as they attempt to stop the circulation of illicit drugs in their city. This time, Miami's finest are the ones on the run.

Release Date

June 7, 2024

Director

Adil El Arbi , Bilall Fallah

Cast

Will Smith , Martin Lawrence , Vanessa Hudgens , Alexander Ludwig , Paola Núñez , Eric Dane , Ioan Gruffudd , Tasha Smith

Writers

Chris Bremner

Studio(s)

Columbia Pictures , 2.0 Entertainment , Don Simpson Films , Jerry Bruckheimer Films , Westbrook Studios

Distributor(s)

Sony Pictures Releasing

prequel(s)

Bad Boys (1995) , Bad Boys 2 , Bad Boys for Life

See Also

'Bad Boys: Ride or Die' boosts Will Smith's comeback and the box office with $56 million opening

Financially, each chapter in the Bad Boys saga has improved from one film to the next. The seminal movie, which teamed up Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) for the very first time in 1995, posted an opening-weekend take of $15.5 million (per Box Office Mojo). Eight years later, in 2003, Bad Boys II started its theatrical run with $46.5 million en route to a final, worldwide total of $273.3 million. And then Bad Boys 3, aka Bad Boys for Life, seriously upped the ante.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die Is ‘What a Summer Movie Is Supposed to Be’

Bad Boys for Life posted the best numbers by far of the film franchise when it dropped in January of 2020. The third go-round for Bad Boys Will Smith and Martin Lawrence enjoyed an opening weekend of $62.5 million domestically, and the action sequel eventually made $426.5 million before the official onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the sequel's follow-up, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, won’t disappoint either, according to Smith. The actor is claiming that Bad Boys 4 is “what a summer movie is supposed to be.” Smith also said:

"I'm very excited about this one. We want it to feel nostalgic, but we also want the characters to be experiencing things that are age-appropriate and experience-appropriate. It's a challenge to keep it fun and keep it exciting and make sure that the popcorn part is enjoyable, but also letting it be gourmet popcorn. It is popcorn, but it's definitely got some special sauce on it."

Bad Boys: Ride or Die’s first trailer shows that things are still as fun and frenetic as ever between Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence). And the footage also teases that Mike’s son, Armando (Jacob Scipio) plays a large role in Bad Boys 4. Smith spoke about Armando’s importance to the storyline in the same interview:

"Mike Lowrey's son plays a really critical part in saving the legacy of the Bad Boys and of Captain Howard. Jacob better get ready to have a really, really good summer because his life is never going to be the same after this movie. He has such a powerful role in this film."

Smith continued:

"Mike is trying to repair his past with his son and the loss of the captain, and there's even a sense that Mike has that he might be cursed. He says, 'Bad s—t happens to everybody I love,' and it's part of why he's had a difficult time having any love and any friendships other than Marcus. So, this is about him trying to develop a ride or die relationship with his son too."