Sony’s “Bad Boys for Life” will take the No. 1 spot at the box office for a second weekend, earning an estimated $33.6 million to bring its total to $120 million after 10 days.
The Will Smith/Martin Lawrence threequel is doing what movie theater execs hoped: help support the box office through a late January period that historically has been a slow period. It is getting help from Universal’s “1917,” which will become the fourth Best Picture nominee in the 2020 Oscar race to cross $100 million with $15.8 million in its third wide weekend.
Fresh off wins at the Directors’ Guild Awards and American Society of Cinematographers Awards that have built its status as the top Oscar frontrunner, “1917” now has a domestic total of $103 million and a global total of $200 million with two weeks to go until the Academy Awards. The film is now $13 million away from passing the domestic total of fellow Best Picture nominee “Ford v Ferrari” and $16 million away from passing the auto-racing film’s global total.
Universal’s “Dolittle” sits in third with $12.5 million in its second weekend for a domestic total of $44.6 million and a global total of $91.1 million. While that’s a decent run for many family adventure films, “Dolittle” is still far from making back its $175 million production budget.
Fourth goes to newcomer “The Gentlemen,” a thriller directed by Guy Ritchie and distributed by STX. While the crime film is facing competition for Gen X male audiences from “Bad Boys for Life,” it is still meeting box office expectations with a $10.7 million opening from 2,165 screens. STX acquired distribution rights for the film for $7 million, and reception has been positive with a B+ on CinemaScore and 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Jumanji: The Next Level” completes the top 5 with $7.9 million in its seventh weekend for a $283 million total. It finishes just ahead of Universal’s newcomer “The Turning,” which earned a $7.3 million opening from 2,571 screens, meeting tracker expectations. Unfortunately, it now has also joined the “F Club,” becoming the 21st film in history to receive an F on CinemaScore. Critics also panned “The Turning” with a 13% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Farther down the charts, several films reached milestones. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” crossed $500 million domestically in its sixth weekend in theaters, bringing its global total to $1.04 billion. Lionsgate’s “Knives Out” crossed $150 million in its ninth weekend, joining “John Wick: Chapter 3” as the second 2019 Lionsgate release to cross that mark. Finally, Disney’s “Frozen II” crossed $1.4 billion worldwide, passing the global run of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” to join the top 10 highest grossing films of all-time before inflation adjustment.