It looks like fans missed the union of Will Smith & Martin Lawrence because, if Thursday night preview numbers are any indication, Bad Boys For Life is headed for one hell of a weekend at the box office.
Bad Boys For Life grossed $6.36 million in Thursday night previews at 3,154 theaters. Keep in mind that this third installment of the popular franchise is rated-R which makes its preview number all the more impressive. The start is bigger than another fellow R-rated MLK release, 2015’s American Sniper. That filmed kicked off with $5.3 million and took that all the way to 4-day holiday opening of $107.2 million, which still holds the record for largest opening over MLK weekend.
Will Bad Boys For Life go that high? I have my doubts since it is a sequel and there is a bit of a fanboy rush to see it BUT it does appear that will definitely exceed its tracking of $45-48 million. Tracking experts began upping their opening weekend predictions to $50-56 million as the Thursday preview night progressed so it does look like the film is going to over-index and outperform its initial tracking. For a film that only cost $90 million to make, Sony has to be forming an early smile due to this preview result.
Other MLK previews that Bad Boys for Life beat include Ride Along which made $1.1 million off 9:00 PM previews back in 2014 and Ride Along 2 grossed $1.3 million off 7:00 PM showtimes. Ride Along is the second highest opener over the MLK holiday with $48.6 million, while Ride Along 2 is 5th with $41 million. In terms of exits and demo outcomes, preview audiences loved the film giving it 4 1/2 stars and a 73% definite recommend on PostTrak. Previews drew 39% African american, 33% Caucasian, 17% Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 7% others. Dominant crowds were 45% males 25+, 28% females 25+, 16% males under 25, and 10% females under 25.
