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Just over two years after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock across the face during the Academy Awards , he’s getting a robust pat on the back from moviegoers and Hollywood insiders alike. Prompting a huge sigh of relief from exhibitors shaken by the lackluster start to the summer film season, this weekend’s $56-million domestic launch of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” reuniting Smith and costar Martin Lawrence for the fourth entry in the franchise, shows that audiences have put Smith’s shocking attack on Rock in the rear-view mirror. But more important, the triumphant debut demonstrates the power of Black and Latino filmgoers, a demographic long overlooked and underserved by Hollywood — even as people of color make up the majority of opening weekend ticket sales for most top-performing movies.

Industry analysts report that 44% of the audience for “Bad Boys” was Black, while 26% was Hispanic and Latino, propelling the picture to a larger opening weekend than actioners “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” Although the film drew mixed reviews, with some critics calling it lazy and uninspired, its rousing reception by audiences of color shows that “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” in which Smith and Martin reprise their respective roles as Miami police detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, provided a healthy dollop of “comfort soul food” so often lacking in Hollywood’s tentpole fare: The film is culturally specific to its Black and Latino characters w.

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