Whatcha gonna do? Bad Boys for Life may not be No. 1 at the box office for life, but it did earn its second-straight weekend victory. The buddy-cop movie earned an estimated $34 million in North America, more than doubling its closest rival. That brings its total domestic gross to an impressive $120.6 million, which is already waaaay more than the original Bad Boys earned in its entire run ($65.8 million). Of course, that was back in 1995, which would make the original Bad Boys one of the very first talkies. But no matter.
Sam Mendes’ acclaimed war film 1917 finished second with $15.8 million. That brings its total domestic tally to a rather impressive $103.9 million.
And that brings us to an interesting little factet: While many lament that Oscar hopefuls tend to be obscure little indie films few people actually see, this year’s crop of Best Picture nominees now features four films that have grossed more than $100 million in North America. Joker, one of last year’s highest-grossing films, leads the pack with $334.7 million in stateside earnings. Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood has made $141.8 million, while Ford v Ferrari collected $114.4 million. Little Women is nearing that $100 million line too, with $93.7 million in earnings (and counting).
Also interesting: Two of the nominees, The Irishman and Marriage Story, are wooing viewers via Netflix, not the local Cineplex, which means that their respective viewership could translate into blockbuster status, too. (Netflix does not typically release viewership numbers for its programming, and when it does the numbers can be a bit suspect. But the reporting firm of Nielsen alleges that The Irishman drew 13.2 million viewers in its first five days. Multiply that by $9.11—the average movie ticket price in the United States—and you’ve already got a $120.3 million movie on your hands.)
Robert Downey Jr.’s Dolittle continues to withstand withering reviews and spent a third-straight weekend in the top five. It earned $12.5 million to push its domestic tally to $44.7 mil. That said, it’ll still need a medium-size miracle to recoup its reported $175 million budget.
The Gentlemen was the weekend’s only freshman film to land in the top five. It earned $11 million to finish fourth, pushing Jumanji: The Next Level ($7.9 million) into fifth. The weekend’s other new wide release, The Turning, turned out to be a bomb, banking just $7.3 million.
By the way, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker landed in seventh place with $5.2 million, pushing its domestic gross to $501.6 million. For all the hand-wringing over the installment’s underperformance (and make no mistake, it has underperformed), Rise of Skywalker is, according to Box Office Mojo, only the 15th film in history to earn more than $500 million domestically. That’s got to be a little Rey of sunshine for what some consider a Poe box-office performance.
Sorry. Couldn’t help myself.
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