'The Gentlemen' Can't Stop 'Bad Boys' While 'The Turning' Earns Audience Contempt [Box Office]

As we all expected, not even the combined efforts of Guy Ritchie’s return to the crime genre and a new horror film were able to topple Will Smith and Martin Lawrence at this weekend’s box office, as “Bad Boys For Life” easily scored yet another win. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything new to talk about with the top earners this weekend.

After a surprisingly strong debut weekend, “Bad Boys For Life” proved, once again, that people are really embracing the decades-old franchise with another #1 weekend, dropping only -46% and earning another $34 million domestically. After 2019 films such as “Terminator: Dark Fate,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and “Men in Black: International” showed that not every franchise should return after a long layoff, 2020’s ‘Bad Boys’ sequel has outperformed even Sony’s wildest expectations and has already scored $121 million domestically after two weekends. The studio has a real shot at seeing its film pass $200 million in the weeks to come. No wonder Sony has already greenlit another sequel.

LISTEN: ‘Bad Boys’ Keeps Blowing Up, In All Its Needless and Demented Appeal [Be Reel Podcast]

Also holding on incredibly strong is Sam Mendes’ award-winning film “1917.” With a DGA win this weekend and coming into the upcoming Oscars as a front-runner for the big prize, “1917” is riding a wave of buzz, dropping only -28% in its fifth weekend (third in wide release) earning a #2 showing and another $15.8 million. That brings the domestic total for the WWI film up to $104 million. If the Oscar predictions hold true, we could be looking at “1917” sticking around in the top 10 for weeks to come.

Even though the debut last weekend was terrible, “Dolittle” held fairly strong in its second weekend, dropping -43% and pulling in another $12.5 million. However, when you look at the domestic total of only $44 million, the big-budget film (carrying an estimated budget of $175 million) is still a long way from profitability.

The two new wide releases this weekend, the aforementioned Guy Ritchie film “The Gentlemen” and the low-budget horror “The Turning,” both opened with mediocre debuts. Ritchie’s return to the crime film genre earned an estimated $11 million in its first weekend. And while that’s not a huge number, the film has a fairly modest budget and STX will likely turn a profit eventually. So, while “The Gentlemen” likely won’t turn into some runaway box office smash, this is far from the end of the world for Ritchie.

The same can’t be said about the horror film “The Turning.” While the $7.3 million debut isn’t a wholly terrible number, especially for a low-budget horror film, “The Turning” earned an abysmal ‘F’ CinemaScore, which is a rare feat that has already been done with a horror film in 2020 (“Black Christmas”). Combined with the Rotten Tomatoes score of 12%, the ‘F’ all but guarantees that “The Turning” will have as much bad buzz as a film can garner. Expect to see it drop out of the top 10 by next weekend and be erased from theaters shortly thereafter.

Now, there were some significant milestones that happened this weekend for films that have been hanging around theaters since the holidays. First, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” finally crossed the half-billion mark domestically, sitting with a current cume of $501 million after its sixth weekend. Sorry fans, but ‘Rise’ is going to fall well short of “Rogue One” domestically. However, the final Skywalker Saga film should be able to catch “Rogue One” internationally, though not by much. Speaking of “Star Wars,” we can talk about director Rian Johnson’s latest film, “Knives Out,” which has finally passed a milestone of its own, earning $151 million after its ninth weekend of release. Obviously, this is a huge win for the filmmaker and Lionsgate.

Last, but certainly not least, Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” earned a domestic cume of $30.9 million after a whopping 16 weeks of release. While passing the $30 million mark isn’t a massive total for blockbusters, for a South Korean film in North America, this is pretty astonishing. In fact, for NEON, “Parasite” now ranks as the largest box office release ever for the indie-distributor, passing the $30.3 million that “I, Tonya” earned.

As for next weekend, yet another horror film debuts, “Gretel & Hansel.” That film hopes to reverse the 2020 horror curse. Also arriving in theaters is the long-awaited Reed Morano-directed action thriller “The Rhythm Section,” starring Blake Lively and Jude Law.

Here’s the domestic top 10 for January 24 to January 26:

Bad Boys For Life – $34M ($121M Overall)
1917- $15.8M ($104M)
Dolittle -$12.5M ($45M)
The Gentlemen – $11M (Debut)
Jumanji: The Next Level – $7.9M ($283M)
The Turning – $7.3M (Debut)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – $5M ($501M)
Little Women – $4.7M ($94M)
Just Mercy – $4M ($27M)
Knives Out – $3.65M ($152M)