The Mercury News

‘Bad Boys’ at No. 1 for third weekend

- By Gabe Cohn

For “Bad Boys for Life,” the third weekend was the charm. Just like the second was. And the first.

The third film in the action-comedy franchise, which stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, easily led the box office over the weekend, bringing in an estimated $17.7 million in domestic ticket sales.

It was the film’s third weekend in theaters and third weekend in the top spot; its cumulative domestic sales now stand at around $148.1 million. It has made an additional $142.7 million overseas according to Sony, the film’s distributo­r.

The weekend’s two newcomers did far less well.

United Artists’ “Gretel & Hansel,” an eerie rethink of a Grimm fairy tale, opened to an estimated $6.1 million in domestic sales. That’s weak but not a disaster for a relatively low-budget thriller and was at least enough to land the movie in the top five. (Estimates have it in fourth place.)

Directed by Osgood Perkins, who has made somewhat of a name for himself on the back of two low-budget, atmospheri­c horror movies, “Gretel & Hansel” keeps the basic setup of the fairy tale that its name is a play on.

Still, it did better than the weekend’s other newcomer. That would be Paramount’s “The Rhythm Section,” an action movie that managed just $2.8 million in estimated domestic sales, a paltry amount next to the movie’s reported $50 million budget. It was only the 10th highestgro­ssing movie in domestic theaters over the weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.

Apart from “Gretel & Hansel,” the top five movies over the weekend were all holdovers. Second place went to Universal’s World War I movie “1917,” the best picture front-runner that sold an estimated $9.7 million in tickets over the weekend, its fourth in wide release.

“Dolittle,” a comedy also distribute­d by Universal, landed in third with about $7.7 million. And STXfilms’ week-old action comedy “The Gentlemen,” from director Guy Ritchie, sold an estimated $6 million in tickets.

 ?? COLUMBIA PICTURES-SONY ?? Martin Lawrence, left, and Will Smith in “Bad Boys for Life,” which earned $17.7million domestical­ly this weekend.
COLUMBIA PICTURES-SONY Martin Lawrence, left, and Will Smith in “Bad Boys for Life,” which earned $17.7million domestical­ly this weekend.

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