Bad Boys 4 is all but guaranteed to set a major franchise box office record for the long-running action franchise.
Set for release in 2024, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett once more in the upcoming sequel after the success of Bad Boys for Life in 2020.
The long-awaited third instalment of the franchise proved to be a surprise hit for the series, as it made $426 million worldwide before COVID-19 shut down theaters.
It came as no surprise then when Sony confirmed that plans were underway for a fourth entry in the Bad Boys movie franchise.
The Bad Boys movies have always had some success at the box office, but Bad Boys for Life is the franchise’s apex so far.
This puts a certain amount of expectations on Bad Boys 4’s box office to live up to its predecessor and become a similarly successful new franchise instalment.
Audiences are likely to respond favourably to seeing Smith and Lawrence sharing the screen again, which puts the sequel in a good position to break box office records for its individual performance.
Even without doing so, though, the Bad Boys franchise could cross a significant milestone.
Bad Boys Will Become A $1 Billion Franchise After Four Movies
Through the release of the three prior entries, the Bad Boys franchise has accumulated a total haul of $841.2 million at the box office. Michael Bay’s original movie made $141 million back in 1995. The sequel Bad Boys II went bigger with the action and found more box office favour to the tune of a $273 million performance. Bad Boys for Life set the franchise record for highest-grossing movie with its $426 million haul. While each movie is individually successful to varying degrees, their collective performance puts the action series within striking distance of passing the $1 billion box office total threshold.
Bad Boys 4 is very likely to be the movie that pushes the series past this important and impressive accomplishment.
The 2024 release only needs to make $158.8 million worldwide to achieve this goal. Even if Bad Boys 4 suffered a massive drop at the box office compared to Bad Boys for Life, it would have to make less than half its predecessor to not help the franchise pass $1 billion in ticket sales overall. That puts the Bad Boys franchise in a great spot considering how successful the fourth installment is likely to be.
How Much Money Bad Boys 4 Could Make At The Box Office
Taking into account how different the box office has been since Bad Boys for Life came out, there is still reason to believe that Bad Boys 4’s box office will go well beyond the $158.8 million minimum it needs to make this a billion-dollar franchise. Bad Boys 4 could make even more than its predecessor and become the first entry in the series to make more than $500 million worldwide. This would not only be more than enough to guarantee that Bad Boys is a $1 billion franchise, but it would open the door for the $2 billion barrier to possibly be passed with a potential fifth entry.