Los Angeles, July 22: The bad boys are back and the box office is badder than before. "Bad Boys II," an action-heavy buddy cop comedy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, took in $46.7 million in its first weekend, bucking the trend of a summer movie season that has been rough on sequels, according to studio estimates.

Following the explosive misadventures of two mismatched cops out to smash a drug ring, "Bad Boys II" reunites Smith and Lawrence with director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer eight years after the release of the first movie.
Bruckheimer also produced the weekend's No. 2 movie, Walt Disney Co.'s "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," a swashbuckling adventure starring Johnny Depp.
That pirate extravaganza, named after a Disneyland attraction, took in $33.3 million, taking its two-week chest of box office gold to $132.2 million. While some critics have panned Sony Pictures' "Bad Boys II," audiences voted otherwise with their wallets. The movie took in more than three times what the original 1995 film made in its opening weekend.
Largely on the strength of the two Bruckheimer movies, overall sales for the top dozen films rose almost 34 percent from the same weekend last year.
This year's summer season has been more notable for movies that have fizzled than those that have shot past expectations.
"Finding Nemo," the animated deep-sea adventure, remained the big exception, with a weekend box office take of $7.3 million that was down only 14 percent from the week before, the smallest decline among the top releases.
Sean Connery's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," a period adventure based on a comic book series, was No. 3 with $10.1 million over the weekend. That was down 56 percent from the opening weekend for the Twentieth Century Fox film.
The Working Title Films production was released by Universal Pictures and netted $9.3 million, adding to the $117 million it has already earned in its earlier overseas release.
Rounding out the top five was "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines." The sequel, which cost near $175 million, slid 53 percent to take in $9.2 million for a total of $127.8 million in the three weeks since star Arnold Schwarzenegger has been back.

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The weekend's third big new release had a disappointing opening. New Line-distributed teen romance "How To Deal," starring singer Mandy Moore, took in just $5.8 million.

Despite the movie's inability to deal with its blockbuster competition, New Line only paid some $6.5 million for the U.S. distribution rights to the $16-million budgeted film.

Twentieth Century Fox is a unit of News Corp. Sony Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. and New Line is a unit of AOL Time Warner.
Bureau Report