Sony Pictures Is ‘Optimistic’ About Box Office Recovery: ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Is Going to Be ‘Just Fine’

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to Blue Moon, the new film from Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater (Hit Man), on which we were first to report, and which will be his next effort after all, with production commencing in Dublin, Ireland this summer.

Ethan Shanfeld Following the success of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” Will Smith is teaming up again with Sony Pictures for the sci-fi thriller “Resistor,” based on Daniel Suarez’s 2014 novel “Influx.” The movie hails from Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch and Tony Shaw of Escape Artists, which has been developing the project for years alongside Smith and Jon Mone through Westbrook. Heather Washington is executive producing, and Dave Wilson is a producer.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has hired Nachiket Pantvaidya as general manager of productions in India. 

EXCLUSIVE: Ronald D. Moore is back at Sony Pictures Television, signing a multi-year overall deal with the independent studio. Under the pact, Moore, his Tall Ship Productions banner, and longtime collaborators Maril Davis and Ben McGinnis will develop and produce scripted series for cable and streaming platforms.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sony Pictures Classics‘ Dylan Leiner along with FilmNation’s Stefan Zorich and Paramount‘s Fabrizio Carrer were among the top film executives and companies who participated in the 13th NY Film & Entertainment Soccer Tournament for charity hosted at the Tribeca Festival. The sun-drenched event gathered 39 teams, along with more than 60 filmmakers from the Tribeca Festival, and hundreds of spectators at Brooklyn Bridge Park overlooking downtown Manhattan.

Four years after Bad Boys original author George Gallo first went to court over copyright to the lucrative Will Smith and Martin Lawrence franchise, the scribe and Columbia Pictures have settled their differences.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It’s been a tough time for the movie business. The 2023 actors and writers strikes brought production to a standstill, leaving studios with fewer films to release in theaters. That’s bad news for cinemas, which are struggling to dig out from the financial hole left by COVID shutdowns and laboring to get audiences to visit the multiplexes at the numbers they were before the pandemic.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, the theater chain that inspired a passionate following with its creative cocktails, extensive food menu and strict “no talking, no texting” policies. The media company acquired Alamo Drafthouse from owners Altamont Capital Partners, Fortress Investment Group and its founder Tim League. Under its new ownership, Alamo Drafthouse will be managed under a newly established division, Sony Pictures Experiences.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter “IF” isn’t exactly a box office bright spot. But Paramount’s kid-friendly fantasy about imaginary friends has ambled along in the time since its soft $33 million debut. Its current tally — $93 million domestically and $160 million worldwide — is decent for an original live-action PG film.

Before Marvel movies would fill slots on a schedule, Jerry Bruckheimer productions did, and still do.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £3.8 million ($4.9 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In second place, in its fourth weekend, Paramount’s “IF” collected £866,474 for a running total of £10.8 million.

Will Smith’s latest movie Bad Boys: Ride Or Die has been a box office success in its opening weekend.The fourth instalment in the buddy cop action franchise Bad Boys, and sequel to 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, arrived in US theatres on June 6.Reuniting Smith and Martin Lawrence, and marking Smith’s second return to the silver screen following the infamous Oscars slap incident in 2022, the film was positively received.Alongside generally favourable reviews, the film amassed $56million at the domestic box office, and $104.6million globally. However, in a two-star review, NME criticised the film’s subplots, writing: “As the film’s title hints, Marcus also has a bizarre thing where he believes he can’t die … Needless to say, this irritating idea resurfaces time and again, to diminishing returns.”Compared with other major releases this summer, the film, which also stars Eric Dane and Vanessa Hudgens, was a close second to Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes in its domestic launch, which garnered an impressive $58million.Ride Or Die, which had a budget of $100million also had a successful opening weekend globally, collecting $19.3million in Europe, and reportedly setting franchise records in the Middle East and Latin America, according to The Hollywood Reporter.The first film in the Bad Boys franchise was released in 1995, and featured Lawrence and Smith as Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett.

Lada Guruden Singh Steps Down From Sony Pictures India Role

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” a hit in multiple other markets worldwide, crashed on its first lap at the South Korean box office. It failed to make even $1 million in on its opening weekend. Instead, “Wonderland,” a sci-fi fantasy about Artificial Intelligence, took the top spot over the weekend.

opened with an estimated $56 million in theaters over the weekend, handing Hollywood a much-needed summer hit and Smith his biggest success since he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.Expectations were all over the map for “Ride or Die” given the dismal moviegoing market thus far this summer and Smith’s less certain box-office clout. In the end, though, the Sony Pictures release came in very close to, or slightly above, its tracking forecast.“Ride or Die,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is Smith’s first theatrical test since his 2022 slap of Rock earned him a 10-year Oscar ban.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is riding high!

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Turns out, Bad Boys are good for ticket sales. Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the fourth entry in the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-led buddy cop series, started strong with $56 million from 3,885 theaters in its domestic debut.

The Numbers reported.The action comedy, which The Post called “mediocre,” is slated to bring in a total of $53 million this weekend, according to Variety.The sum pales in comparison to its predecessor, 2020’s “Bad Boys for Life,”which enjoyed a $62.5 million opening domestically, as per The Hollywood Reporter. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” marks Smith’s first film since he slapped Chris Rock at the 2002 Oscars, and The Post said the actor was “completely dead behind the eyes,” in the flick.The supernatural horror “The Watchers,” starring Dakota Fanning, landed in second, with earnings of $2.9 million.The film, which was adapted from a 2022 novel by A.M.

The well-established ‘Bad Boys’ buddy cop formula isn’t rocket science. It’s combustible friction, and thus comedy between two very different Miami detectives— Will Smith as Mike Lowery and Martin Lawrence as Marcus Barnett—and as many chaotic shoot ‘em ups and car chases as possible as humanly possible mixed with Michael Bayhem-esque cinematic slickness and hysterics.

EXCLUSIVE: TV writers-producers Denise Thé, Melissa Scrivner Love, and Amanda Segel have formally launched Third Rail Productions with a first-look deal at Sony Pictures Television. Under the two-year pact, the trio will develop and produce scripted series for cable and streaming, focusing on dramas with female leads.