Will Smith’sBad Boysfranchise gained an unexpected comeback withBad Boys For Lifein 2020, and as well as spurring on another sequel, 2024’sBad Boys: Ride or Die, the success has also seen the original movies in the series gaining a new audience. Now, 30 years after its release, the originalBad Boysis topping theTubichart.
Released in 1995 and directed by Michael Bay,Bad Boyswas the kind of big, brash action movie that you would expect from the always spectacular helmer of the originalTransformersmovies,Pearl Harbor, andArmageddon. Of course, at the time ofBad Boys’ release, Bay was known for directing commercials and music videos, including the Beauty and the Beast inspired epic for the mighty Meat Loaf’sI’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).Bad Boyswas his first directorial feature, and although it did not gain the perfect set of reviews, its box office was enough to prove that Bay could pull in a crowd.
Bad Boyswas made on a budget of up to $23 million, and took over $141 worldwide – as a side note, Bay would be given almost that gross as the budget forBad Boys II, but that is another story. Despite the financial success of the film, and a strong appreciation from audiences, critics were not quite as impressed by the loud and proud action-driven offering from Bay. The film scored just 43% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus praising the chemistry between leads Smith and Martin Lawrence, but noting that“Bay too often drowns it out with set pieces and explosions in place of an actual story.”
The thing about critics is that they can sometimes forget exactly what audiences look for a movie. Action fans want action. It is nice to have some kind of plotline not concocted by a 10-year-old during recess that found its way onto the desk of a Hollywood studio executive via a gust of wind, but overall, if the bangs are big, the violence is brutal, and the good guys win the day, generally a film will please a large majority of people.
That is true ofBad Boys. Following the success of the film, Bay returned to the director’s chair for a sequel in 2003, which scored an even more dismal 23% Tomatometer score but maintained the 78% audience rating of the first movie. Coming with a $130 million budget and box office haul of just over $230 million, the franchise’s underwhelming second outing appeared to have killed off chances of another sequel.
16 Best Quotes From the Bad Boys Franchise
After a strong performance at the box office from Bad Boys: Ride or Die, we take a look back at the best quotes from the franchise
They say a change is as good as a rest, and both turned out to play a part inthe incredible 2020 comeback of the franchise withBad Boys for Life. Switching out Bay for directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the belated sequel was an unprecedented success on all fronts. It scored 76% and 96% from critics and audiences, respectively, and turned its reasonable $90 million budget into a whopping $426.5 million worldwide as one of the last big blockbusters to land in cinemas before the Covid pandemic. This year’s follow-up,Bad Boys: Ride or Die, brought almost identical results, including another $400 million gross and a 97% audience score.
In June 2024, both Smith and Lawrence suggested that they would be willing to return for a fifth movie as long as “there is a story to be told.” Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was enthusiastic about another movie being added to the franchise, but at the time said it mostly depended on how well the latest offering fared at the box office. While we now know the answer to that part of the puzzle, the only question now is when willBad Boys 5become official?
