In the war on streaming, Will Smith is doing his part to get butts back in theater seats.
The Academy Award-winner surprised fans at a recent screening of his new movie, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, the fourth installment in the buddy cop franchise. He snuck out of the theater at Cinemark Baldwin Hills Crenshaw after watching the movie with the public.
“Surprise,” wrote a fan with a now-viral TikTok video of the moment. “When you walk out of Bad Boys movie and Will Smith walks out with you after having watched the movie with you!! Only at CINEMARK!”
The clip starts with a group of unsuspecting moviegoers exiting the theater as Smith walks out with them. “Hey, I’m glad y’all enjoyed that. That was a good movie,” he said as excited yells immediately broke out.
Fans swarmed Smith, who seemed more than happy to hug his admirers and pose for some selfies while the credits rolled. He then led the crowd in a loud cheer as they huddled in the hallway, surely confusing anyone who happened to be watching another movie.
“I was in there the whole time!” he said in another clip.
Smith shared a video of the “ritual” on his own social media, showing him sitting in the back of the theater with a face mask on. “I snuck into @badboys in Baldwin Hills last night,” he captioned the Instagram reel on Saturday. “It was SPECTABULOUS! Where should I go next?”
“We’re in Baldwin Hills, we’re about to go into the theater. It’s a ritual I have. I do it when I have a movie come out — on Friday, Saturday, there’s usually a matinee on Sunday — I go into theaters.”
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’
Sony Pictures
Bad Boys: Ride or Die opened to $56M this weekend, making it the highest-grossing R-rated movie since last summer’s Oppenheimer. It also makes it the second-highest in the franchise, following its predecessor, Bad Boys for Life (2020).
Smith reunited onscreen with co-star Martin Lawrence once again after originating the roles of Miami detectives Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett in the OG 1995 movie.
In Ride or Die, Lowry and Burnett set out to clear their late captain’s (Joe Pantoliano) name after he’s linked to drug cartels following his death.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now playing in theaters.