Some box office returns were mightier than others this MLK weekend as two veteran franchises made attempted comebacks after rather extensive cool down periods. Taking a crack at their first potential wins of the year, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures went head-to-head with Bad Boys For Life and Dolittle, respectively. Ultimately, moviegoers expressed a much greater interest catching up with Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey after 17 years than they did witnessing Robert Downey, Jr. fist-bump with penguins and such: the buddy-cop action-comedy claimed the top spot with a $62.2 domestic gross while Dolittle settled in the third spot, after war epic 1917 ($22 million). Even with hundreds more theaters than the R-rated romp, the family-friendly talking animal adventure could only scrounge up just under $22 million in its opening weekend. While Hollywood is already hard at work on Bad Boys’ fourth installment, we can’t imagine we’ll be seeing the retired Iron Man talk shop again with too many ducks in the future, though we have been soundly punished before.
Continuing to bank more bucks for Sony is Jumanji: The Next Level, which clings to the top five in its sixth week. More notably, it has jumped ahead of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker ($8.3 million) for the first time since its theatrical residency, despite a modest domestic pull of $9.7 million. Even in fifth place, TROS still crossed the billion-dollar global mark.
Guy Ritchie’s ensemble crime feature The Gentlemen slides into theaters this weekend alongside the gruesome haunt The Turning. Are they any match for Bulletproof Mike and Please Cash Out My 401K Marcus? We will see next week.
For a more detailed analysis of this weekend’s box office, check out Box Office Mojo.