Bad Boys For Life Is Now The First Movie Of 2020 To Hit This Box Office Milestone

Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) walk outside in a scene from Bad Boys

Bad Boys For Life has already proven to be a huge hit. Now it looks like it’s another big win is on deck for the third installment of the Bad Boys franchise. By the end of this weekend, it should become the first 2020 film to cross a huge box office milestone.

According to Box Office Mojo, Bad Boys For Life is on track to hit $200 million at the domestic box office as we speak. That would make it the first film released this decade to cross that threshold, handily beating Sonic the Hedgehog and Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

It’s not really a surprise that Bad Boys For Life would be the first film to hit $200 million this year. When it hit theaters on January 17, fans and critics alike responded positively. The general consensus has been that the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-led action thriller was the perfect reboot for the beloved franchise. And that’s been reflected at the worldwide box office. With $406.9 million thus far, it’s currently the top-grossing film of the year by a sizable margin -- it has more than $100 million over the second highest-grossing movie (Sonic) and nearly double the second runner-up (Dolittle).

Any way you look at it, Bad Boys For Life is the biggest hit of the year so far. The question is how long it will hold onto that title. The rest of 2020 is pretty stacked as far as big movie releases are concerned.

Pixar has two films on deck this year. First, there’s Onward, which hit theaters this weekend, and they’ll follow that up with Soul in June. Though both films may not bring in the $1 billion we saw with franchise stalwart, Toy Story 4, we know Pixar’s standalone films do just fine all on their own.

There are, as per usual, several huge comic franchise films. From Black Widow to Wonder Woman 1984, some of our favorite superheroines could be poised to bring in some big box office revenue if history is any indication. Then, there’s Venom 2, which could follow the surprising success of its 2018 predecessor. Fast and Furious 9 earned massive buzz off the strength of its first trailer alone. And later this month, Disney is set to deliver its long-awaited live action adaptation of Mulan, which should kill it at the worldwide box office (assuming it ever gets a release date in China).

Still, whatever happens next, Bad Boys For Life has more than earned its time at the top. And it’s also helped build momentum for a fourth chapter of the franchise, which could go on to break some box office records of its own.

Katherine Webb