‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Bad Boys’ Get Theaters Off Life Support

At last. A weekend to sincerely cheer.

“Inside Out 2” (Disney) would have been terrific at a $100 million opening weekend, but it soared to an estimated $155 million. Meantime, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (Sony), would have been thought successful with a 50 percent drop in its second weekend. Instead, it is off 42 percent with $33 million after an opening weekend of $56.5 million.

In what was set up to be a do-or-die critical two-weekend period, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (Sony) and “Inside Out 2″ (Disney) exceeded expectations — and more importantly, at the same time. It’s hard to overestimate how much dread there was ahead of these two releases. Had either or both fell short of reasonable expectations, as did to many recent high-end releases before them, the despair would have reached new lows.

Instead, not only did both franchise titles come through, they also exceeded best hopes. That happened last nearly a year ago, when the same-day “Barbie”/”Oppenheimer” release unrealistically raised hopes that theaters were in full recovery mode.

Instead, this weekend’s strong gross of $214 million, the first over $200 million since last July, is 50 percent better than any since the last weekend in July. That’s how much grosses have lagged, certainly in part because of a strike-reduced release schedule but also because of too much disinterest in what played.

That affects future decision making for both studios and theaters. It also…