Near record opening for Bad Boys movie by Flemish directors

The third instalment of the Bad Boys mega-hit cop series, directed by Flanders’ own Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, has grossed the second-highest amount ever for an opening film in the US in January. With more than $59 million (€53 million) in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, Bad Boys for Life earned twice as much as was forecast.

The film – starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence – also opened internationally this weekend in 39 markets, for a total gross of $100 million. That means it has already earned what it cost to produce.

El Arbi and Fallah had made two features – Image and Black – before being signed on to Bad Boys for Life. They completed the film Patser in the meantime before making the trip to Hollywood to shoot the action-comedy in which the titular bad boys, police detectives Mike and Marcus, must fight more bad guys to set the world right again.

Audiences were enthusiastic in attending the film at the weekend, but even critics have been rather kind to it, with Screen Rant calling it “a surprisingly entertaining sequel”, Hollywood Reporter saying that it has “its own voice, one that respects what has come before but isn’t limited by it,” and Rogerebert.com going as far as to say: “It is the best of the three films”.

Bad Boys for Life opens in Belgium on Wednesday.

Photo, from left: Adil El Arbi, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Bilall Fallah at the premiere of Bad Boys For Life in Hollywood last week
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