A weekend full of wins has already been teed up for Sony's Bad Boys For Life as the next installment in the action franchise scores a $23.5 million domestic opening weekend. The third Bad Boys film sees Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reprising their respective roles as Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. The boys may be a little older, but that hasn't deterred audiences from checking out this new release on Friday.

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Image via Sony Pictures

It's been 17 years since we've gotten a Bad Boys movie (the last installment was 2003's Bad Boys II) so it feels only natural that fans of the franchise would hustle back into theaters this weekend to catch up with Smith and Lawrence. Opening in 3,775 theaters nationwide, Bad Boys For Life averaged $6,225 per theater. It should be noted a portion of that $23.5 million is from previews, where Bad Boys For Life earned $6.4 million domestic on Thursday night. Not too shabby for a franchise that has been on hiatus for nearly two decades, don't you think? If the latest Bad Boys movie keeps this up, it will likely have be the movie with the second best Martin Luther King Jr. weekend ever, coming behind 2014's American Sniper ($107.2 million domestic).

Fellow MLK weekend new release Dolittle scooped up $6.3 million domestic on its Friday opening with $925,000 of that total earned in Thursday previews. The film, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the popular veterinarian who can talk to his animal charges, has been bogged down by critical reviews across the board. As such, it was unclear just how big a factor the negative reviews would factor in, especially since Downey Jr. — an audience favorite whose first post-MCU role is in this movie — was leading the charge. Dolittle opened in 4,155 theaters nationwide and averaged $1,516 per theater.

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Image via Universal Pictures

The rest of Friday top five at the box office are (in order): 1917Jumanji: The Next Level, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker1917 was the champ just one weekend ago and now it has slipped to number three with $6.2 million domestic earned on Friday. That represents a 56% dip since last week with the picture averaging $1,717 per theater across 3,612 theaters. Still holding on from early December in the number four spot is Jumanji: The Next Level, which dipped 35% down to $2.2 million domestic. And, despite crossing the $1 billion worldwide threshold earlier this week, The Rise of Skywalker is at number five with $2 million earned domestically.

For more on this weekend's new releases, check out our reviews of Bad Boys For Life and Dolittle.

Rank

Title

Friday

Total

1.

Bad Boys For Life

$23,500,000

$23,500,000

2.

Dolittle

$6,300,000

$6,300,000

3.

1917

$6,200,000

$60,816,984

4.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

$2,175,000

$263,087,975

5.

Rise of Skywalker

$1,978,000

$485,623,801