Sony‘s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” made $21.6M on Friday, on its way to a $53M opening. The fourth instalment in the franchise, currently playing in 3,885 theaters, might actually hit the $55M mark by Sunday evening. Despite Tuesday’s alarming forecast, which had it opening at around $35M, the film’s initial tracking was actually the correct one.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros’ “Furiosa” continues to slide into a box office pit of despair. George Miller’s prequel is down another -60% this weekend with just $4.2M. For a film that benefits from being seen on premium screens, it lost a lot of them in favor of ‘Bad Boys 4.’ This is a total catastrophe for WB, initial numbers had the break-even point at $420M, and now the absolute best-case scenario is $175M worldwide by the end of its run. “Furiosa” is looking at losses of over $200M.
Warner Bros has another major “L” this weekend. Ishana Shyamalan’s “The Watchers,” budgeted at $30M, grossed an estimated $2M domestically on Friday (from 3,351 locations). Terrible reviews certainly did not help. Warner Bros will gladly cancel “Coyote vs Acme” and yet they’re willing to spend money on a film they only greenlit to get Ishana’s father (M. Night) to sign on with them for “Trap.”
Finally, Paramount's “IF” grossed an estimated $2.3M on Friday (from 3,582 locations), which was a 20% decrease from the previous Friday. It should hit $100M domestically by next week, not bad, this one has legs, but that $110M budget sticks out like a sore thumb.