Even if ‘Bad Boys’ is a hit, Will Smith’s comeback won’t be easy

nypost.com:

the infamous Oscars smack, when Smith stormed the stage of the Dolby Theater and slapped presenter Chris Rock for making a jab about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, it still stings for many ticket-buyers.

Let alone Rock.The actor’s televised assault of the comic and unhinged shouts of “Get my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” shattered his public image as a charismatic and funny life of the party who could wring laughs even out of a devastating alien invasion.The hit was enough to get him banned from the Oscars until 2032.

Frankly, he’s lucky that he wasn’t arrested. Any of us normals would have been fired on the spot and hauled away. Smith got to make a Best Actor speech and keep the trophy.Now, he is attempting a big Hollywood comeback with “Ride or Die,” the mediocre fourth entry in the buddy-cop series, which looks to open to about $50 million this weekend.

That’s a healthy number, if about $10 million behind the last installment’s opening. But could its success be less indicative of Smith’s mass appeal than that of the popular, 20-year-old brand and his hilarious co-star Martin Lawrence? “Just can’t look at Will the same, but Martin is my guy [and I] wish him nothing but success,” another woman wrote on TikTok.