The fourth instalment of the action-comedy series garnered an estimated $56 million, surpassing industry expectations of a $40 million debut, according to Exhibitor Relations.
Internationally, the film added $48.6 million, bringing its global total to approximately $104.6 million. Despite mixed reviews from audiences and critics, audiences awarded the film an “A-” CinemaScore.
This success is particularly notable given recent box office struggles, such as ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ and ‘The Fall Guy’, which despite strong reviews, failed to attract significant audiences. ‘Ride or Die’, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, marks Smith’s first major release since his controversial Oscars incident in 2022, which resulted in a 10-year ban from the Academy Awards
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The film had a production budget of around $100 million and managed to outperform Smith’s previous film, ‘Emancipation’, which did not fare well at the box office.
‘Ride or Die’ did, however, fall short of the opening numbers of its predecessor, 2020’s ‘Bad Boys for Life’, which debuted with $62.5 million and ended up as the highest-grossing North American release of that year due to pandemic-related theatre closures.
In the film, Smith and Martin Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives, navigating a plot that involves clearing the name of their late police captain, played by Joe Pantoliano. One of the film’s standout scenes features Lawrence slapping Smith and calling him a “bad boy.”
Last weekend’s box office leader, ‘The Garfield Movie’, dropped to second place, earning $10 million in its third weekend and bringing its domestic total to $68.6 million. Meanwhile, ‘The Watchers’, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, debuted poorly with $7 million from 3,351 theatres, hampered by negative reviews.
In third place, ‘If’, a fantasy film about an imaginary friend starring Ryan Reynolds, continued to perform well, accumulating $93.5 million domestically over four weeks. Rounding out the top five was ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’, which added $5.4 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $150 million and its global total to $360 million.