“Bad Boys for Life” Keeps Up the Good Work

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on “Bad Boys for Life” Keeps Up the Good Work

BOX OFFICE REPORT

January 24-26, 2020

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Bad Boys for Life  $34 million
1917  $15.8 million
Dolittle $12.4 million
The Gentlemen $11.3 million
Jumanji: The Next Level  $7.9 million

Audiences still found the duo of Martin Lawrence and Will Smith irresistible, as Bad Boys for Life enjoyed another strong weekend in first place. It's the first movie of 2020 to pass $100 million. By next weekend, it will have made more money than the first two movies (at least before inflation is factored in). That's another big win for Sony, who lately is doing the best of any studio not owned by Disney.

1917 added wins from the producers' and directors' guilds on its way to a likely Best Picture win at the Oscars in two weeks. It's continued to clean up at the box office too, passing $100 million. Dolittle will still go down as a bomb, but its decent hold means it should make at least $60 million. Don't get me wrong, that's still terrible for a movie reported to have cost $175 million, but it could have been a lot worse.

Guy Ritchie's return to the world of British crime thrillers proved to be only for niche audiences. The director of giant blockbusters like Sherlock Holmes and Aladdin went back to his roots and could only muster up $11.3 million, despite the star power of Matthew McConaughey and a heartthrob on the rise in Henry Golding. It will likely end up making less than Snatch did 20 years ago. Jumanji: The Next Level rounded out the top 5, still struggling to reach $300 million.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Panga, an inspirational sports drama from India. Playing on 102 screens, it averaged $2,754.
  • The Turning couldn't turn a classic horror story into a successful film. It earned only $7.3 million, good for sixth place. Many reviews complained about it's bizarre non-ending.
  • With $30 million just from North American audiences, Parasite is officially the highest-grossing movie for young studio Neon, passing I, Tonya. Hopefully it will also win some Oscars on February 9.

Next week: You can go ahead and mark Bad Boys for Life for a third weekend on top. Horror movie Gretel & Hansel and revenge thriller The Rhythm Section will each make less than $10 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.