When Bad Boys for Life as slotted for a mid-January debut, it pretty much sent a signal to many to not expect a lot even after the gap between installments where fans kept asking for more. The film landed from Sony Pictures with a strong set of Thursday night previews and delivered a $59.1 million three-day weekend. With it being a four-day weekend in many places, it’s expect to add another $10 million or so based on current tracking and past data. That would make it the second-largest opening for the holiday weekend after 2015’s American Sniper.
The film got an “A” CinemaScore and initially a 97% RT score as well. It leaned a bit more male and over 25 for the audience as expected, so it could have some legs with little in the way of competition for the next few weeks in the action quadrant. It opened in 39 markets overseas where it added $38.6 million for the three-day weekend. It’s got many big releases over the next month overseas.
The other film of the weekend to open was Dolittle, which brought in $22.5 million for the three-day and has estimates of $30 million for the four-day. It nailed a “B” CinemaScore and is seems to settle around 76% for RT. Audiences were split fairly evenly gender-wise and it skewed younger as expected. Universal put in $175 million for the production which saw its overseas run begin last weekend. This weekend had it growing to 46 markets and between the two weekends has brought in $50 million or so. It has a lot of big markets still to open over the next two months, including its Chinese release on February 21st, 2020.
While not on the chart, the release of Weathering with You from GKIDS did get some notice. The film did just over $3 million in its fan openings and then did another $2 million over the three-day weekend – but not enough to get it into the top twelve for the three-day coverage. This makes the film the biggest opener for GKIDS by double of what Mary and the Witch’s Flower did back in 2018. The worldwide for the film that did huge numbers in Japan is now at $182 million since summer 2019.
Next weekend has Universal going wide with the horror film The Turning while STX Entertainment goes wide with The Gentlemen for some action/crime. In limited release, Warner Bros. has Detective Chinatown 3, Film Movement has Zombi Child, Roadside Attractions has The Last Full Measure, and FIP debuts Panga.
| # | Title | Distributor Name | Weekend Total | # of Locs | Loc Avg | Cume Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bad Boys For Life | Sony | $59,175,000 | 3,775 | $15,675 | $59,175,000 |
| 2 | Dolittle | Universal | $22,530,000 | 4,155 | $5,422 | $22,530,000 |
| 3 | 1917 | Universal | $22,140,000 | 3,612 | $6,130 | $76,756,984 |
| 4 | Jumanji: The Next Level | Sony | $9,565,000 | 3,323 | $2,878 | $270,477,975 |
| 5 | Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker | Disney | $8,374,000 | 3,058 | $2,738 | $492,019,801 |
| 6 | Just Mercy | Warner Bros. | $6,000,000 | 2,457 | $2,442 | $19,612,643 |
| 7 | Little Women | Sony | $5,910,000 | 2,503 | $2,361 | $84,401,052 |
| 8 | Knives Out | Lionsgate | $4,300,000 | 1,667 | $2,579 | $145,977,387 |
| 9 | Like A Boss | Paramount | $3,840,000 | 3,081 | $1,246 | $16,923,588 |
| 10 | Frozen 2 | Disney | $3,717,000 | 2,080 | $1,787 | $464,868,690 |
| 11 | Underwater | 20th Century Fox | $3,560,000 | 2,791 | $1,276 | $12,780,707 |
| 12 | Spies In Disguise | 20th Century Fox | $2,588,000 | 1,761 | $1,470 | $58,414,867 |
