'Bad Boys for Life' tops the box office for an incredible third-straight weekend and becomes the franchise's highest-grosser in just 17 days

• Sony's "Bad Boys for Life" won the domestic box office for a third-straight weekend with $17.7 million.
• The movie is now the highest-grossing title in the franchise. Its domestic total to date is $148 million.
• Paramount's "The Rhythm Section" has the worst opening for a wide release in 2020 so far, as it only brought in $2.8 million on 3,000 screens.
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It may still be very early, but there can be no dispute: Sony is dominating the early days of 2020.

Multiplexes at the moment are filled with titles from the studio that can satisfy all audiences. From Oscar nominated titles like "Little Women" and "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," to blockbuster fare like "Jumanji: The Next Level" and "Bad Boys for Life."

And the latter is the shining jewel of the movie biz at the moment as it has scored the rare third-straight weekend box office win.

The movie, teaming Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as wise-cracking Miami detectives 17 years after the release of "Bad Boys II," topped the domestic box office with an estimated $17.7 million. That now brings its domestic total to $148 million, which tops "Bad Boys II" and makes "Bad Boys for Life" the highest-grosser of the franchise. And it set that feat in just 17 days in theaters.

You can chalk up the success of the movie to the creatives behind it, especially the producer who oversees the franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer, who for years had to navigate a revolving door of directors, screenwriters, as well as numerous release date changes, and appeasing his temperamental stars to finally get the third movie in the can. But you also have to give credit to the executives at Sony, who found the perfect release for the movie to have time for the word of mouth to build.

The January release, in a time of year where there is zero competition outside of the Oscar contenders - which is only attractive to a select audience - opened the door for a big opening and consecutive weeks to build up its box office coin as titles like "Dolittle" and "The Turning" didn't find any interest from audiences.

"Bad Boys for Life" will most likely be dethroned next Friday when Warner Bros. opens its DC Comics title "Birds of Prey" on a record-breaking number of screens for the month of February (4,100), but Sony certainly used its time well at the number one spot.

Box-office highlights:

• This weekend wasn't a good one for Paramount. Its gritty revenge movie starring Blake Lively, "The Rhythm Section," only brought in $2.8 million on around 3,000 screens, well below the studio's projection of a $4 million to $7 million first weekend. It's also the worst opening in 2020 by a movie in wide release.
• Horror movies usually are dud-proof, but Orion's "Gretel & Hansel" follows Universal's "The Turning" last weekend as a pair of scary movies that didn't attract audiences. "Gretel & Hansel" did better than "The Rhythm Section," bringing in $6.1 million on 3,000 screens over the weekend, but that's still a disappointing figure as it didn't even have enough to top "Dolittle" (which brought in $7.7 million).