The Bad Boys Phenomenon: How a 90s Film Franchise Became Legendary
Song of the week: Chaka Khan - Magic in Your Eyes
If you haven’t seen Chaka Khan’s Tiny Desk concert with NPR, you’re missing out. With that said, Chaka’s music is heavily sampled, and this is one of my favorite Chaka Khan tracks.
And now, for today’s piece…
Some film franchises are so iconic, that it doesn’t matter how many movies you make, people will line up to watch them:
A new Mission Impossible? Sure, why not.
Star Wars episode 30? Ehhh probably not as good as The Empire Strikes Back… But we’ll watch it.
Fast Furious is back again? F*ck it. Run it back.
They deliver every single time.
And the focus of today’s piece is no different. Of course, I’m talking about none other than
Bad Boys.
Ride or Die, the fourth film in the franchise has proven itself to be the movie of the Summer.
At a time when movies would be lucky to break even, Martin Lawrence & Will Smith are proving that they are still box office kings with the new film doing over $100 million in the opening weekend.
Despite what the media would have you think, the success of this movie isn’t a fluke or an upset — in fact, it would’ve been easy to predict if they put the proper respect on it (but I digress).
There are some dope marketing tactics that come into play here that can help explain why this is one of the best film franchises ever, and still capable of pulling in a crowd after 30 years.
Let’s talk about it.
The Power of Co-Branding
In a recent interview, Will Smith recounted how the original Bad Boy film came about.
As the story goes, Martin Lawrence reached out to him about it, and the pitch was simple. It was TRUST ME.
After all, Martin and Will were two of the biggest Black Stars of the 90s. The Martin Show and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air helped usher in a new era of TV, so it only made sense that they would do a movie together.
It only made sense to combine the power of their brands in a way that The Culture had never seen before.
Needless to say…
It worked. Like, really worked.
Bad Boys 1 made $141 million worldwide
Bad Boys 2 made $273.3 million worldwide.
Bad Boy 3 made $426.5 million worldwide
You read that last stat correctly.
Bad Boys 4 Life made $400mil - almost a half a B in 2020. Franchises don’t do numbers like that anymore, let alone during a pandemic — but that’s the power of co-branding.
By themselves, both Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are box office giants. But together, they achieved an entirely new level of success.
In this instance, co-branding was an amazing alternative to competition. Imagine if Martin and Will were so competitive they couldn’t see the merit in teaming up?
(Side note… You know much earned media value Bubblicious and Skittles probably generated from this shoutout? Fam.)
A Holistic (and at times Grassroots) Approach
The guiding force for the success of the Bad Boys franchise, especially the past two films, has been a strong commitment from both stars to promote the film.
It sounds simple, but a lot of Hollywood stars give off an air of reluctance — “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” energy when it comes to promo.
However, the Bad Boys duo brings life to their film promotions. In fact, it looks like they’re having fun the entire time leading up to the film. That’s magic.
What’s readily apparent about the release of Bad Boys Ride or Die is that Will Smith and Martin (and the teams behind the film) had a really strong plan to promote the project.
In the case of BB4, it included social content, teasers, and an interview circuit — all the components of a 360 marketing campaign. It was perfecton.
I. The Teaser
Whispers of Bad Boy 4 started last year, but when it was time to announce, Martin/Will hit the ground running with a star-studded teaser.
The one below entitled “Whatcha Gonna Do Jimmy” finds both the duo working with Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler — a great choice considering the bulk of the films take place in Miami.
There’s another special cameo at the end, and again, this wasn’t part of the film. It was just a great piece of content that showed the level of commitment the team had to promoting the film. Major key.
II. The Interview Circuit
Another standout piece of this campaign is the PR run, especially because Martin and Will went to the Black media and Youth culture outlets.
Typically box office giants go straight to GQ, or the like to promote their projects, opting not to visit the less mainstream (aka less-white) platforms.
Martin & Will did the complete opposite.
They went to Sway in the Morning, Hot 97, 7pm in Brooklyn, etc. The only thing that’s missing is an interview with SNOBHOP, but I digress.
The interview circuit paid off in a major way because the virality of the clips helped serve to keep Will Smith and Martin Lawrence top of mind throughout the week.
Thus, when it came time for a purchase decision (i.e. how to spend time/money over the weekend) consumers moved seeing the movie up a few spots on their lists of “wants”.
Peep below to hear Will give advice on achieving greatness.
And check out this piece of content to hear the GOATs answer questions on Complex.
III. The Social Content
These days, no campaign is complete without content.
This team spared no expense hitting consumers at all angles and continuing to promote the movie PAST THE FIRST WEEKEND.
It shows that the success of the film doesn’t just rely on opening weekend, but a sustained effort — you may not catch people on day one, but day 10? Who knows.
The clip below is from Will’s IG page, and it reimagines the BB4 trailer as if it was done in the 90s.
Another creative piece of content that promotes the movie in a novel way — it caught my attention. I think it it’ll catch yours too:
Also, the duo kept in mind that movies are a global experience. In the piece of content below they partnered with a food Influencer named Robegrill who helped the duo reach a new audience with the IG post below:
The Power of the Black Dollar
In case anyone forgot, Black people boast over a $1 trillion in spending power. It’s the reason for the rise in certain fashion brands, beverages, and in this case the Bad Boys franchise.
According to Deadline, 44% of the movie goers for Bad Boy 4 were Black, and 26% were Hispanic.
With that in mind, the box office honcho’s are still likely to chalk up the success of Bad Boys 4 to a “weak” box office weekend or an “unexpected” event, but as the stat above proves, it’s neither.
You have two of the greatest Black movie stars ever who did the work that a lot of others at their level don’t (or won’t).
They visited local media, popped in the neighborhood, and parlayed with the people for a bit, made craaazy content to promote. They put the hustle to the muscle.
On top of that, Will has a history of putting on young talent, as does Martin. Both of these stars are beloved.
So when our biggest stars need support, we show up. It is what it is.
Plus the past 3 movies have been great.
EPILOGUE
The biggest takeaways here should be that:
You gotta promote, no matter how big you are. And you have to do it like it’s your last creative effort.
Will Smith is still the Box Office King.
Martin Lawrence is still one of the funniest comedians ever (and currently on tour!)
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the new Bad Boys film, so I gotta go see it this weekend.
When I get to the concessions stand I’ll be sure to ask for a pack of Tropical Fruit Bubblicious… And some Skittles.
One.