Bad Boys: Ride or Die on track to rival Oppenheimer’s box office opening

Bad Boys: Ride or Die’s opening box office marked a major milestone for summer R-rated movies in a way that hasn’t been seen since Oppenheimer.

The fourth outing for Miami’s finest had an explosive opening weekend that exceeded expectations, as the movie made about $5.9 million during preview sales.

This is a huge win for Bad Boys: Ride or Die because it marks the highest preview sales for an R-rated blockbuster since Oppenheimer premiered last summer.

In contrast, Oppenheimer’s amounted to about $10.5 million — while Bad Boys 4 did fall short of the biopic, it’s still an impressive achievement.

Unlike Oppenheimer, Bad Boys: Ride or Die didn’t have the benefit of another film like Barbie drumming up its hype — so it did it all on its own, as most action movies have to do.

While a lot of people probably would have seen Christopher Nolan‘s epic film, there’s no denying that the cultural phenomenon that was Barbenheimer (Barbie and Oppeheimer) skyrocketed the movie’s appeal to general audiences.

Before 2020’s Bad Boys for Life, the last movie to come from the action franchise was 2003’s Bad Boys II so, while the movies still had fans, it was a bit of a gamble to release another movie 17 years later.

However, the gamble paid off, as Bad Boys 3 earned $426.5 million worldwide and was the highest-rated movie in the franchise, with a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

And now it looks like Bad Boys: Ride or Die is gearing up to outdo its predecessor as the movie currently has a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and its opening weekend box office sales are projected to be around $104.6 million worldwide.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is in theaters now. For more, you can read our Bad Boys 4 ending explained. And you can also check out the best movies of 2024 so far and keep up with all the new TV shows to watch this month.