The longer any project spends in development hell, the more likely it is to remain there forever. Having endured countless false starts for well over a decade, there were a lot of fans who’d resigned themselves to the fact a third Bad Boys movie was never going to happen.
Of course, not only did it end up coming together and exploding into theaters 17 years after its predecessor, but Bad Boys for Life was a monster. A $426 million tally at the box office wasn’t just more than the previous two installments combined, but the pandemic saw it become the top-grossing Hollywood release of 2020, and that’s without even mentioning the franchise-best reviews, either.
A fourth outing for Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey was announced shortly after, but a question mark now hangs over Bad Boys 4 due to a certain indiscretion involving star Will Smith that may or may not have grabbed a headline or two. Until we find out for sure if the middle-aged cops are gearing up for another adventure, their last trigger-happy escapade will continue to drum up repeat business on streaming.
In fact, Bad Boys for Life is currently tearing it up on two rival platforms per FlixPatrol, having become a Top 10 hit on Netflix in four countries, while simultaneously entering the upper echelons of the Prime Video rankings in an additional handful of nations. Running and gunning never goes out of fashion, it would seem, and it’s obvious that audiences would love to see the veteran officers reunited onscreen at least one more time.
