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

A month ago, I was sitting on a beach in Florida talking to a new friend about upcoming summer movies.

When I mentioned “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” which hit theaters this weekend, the New Jersey woman’s response was instant — and angry.

“Will Smith is dead to me,” she said. 

Ouch.

Two years after 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. 

Can the stained star still carry a major film alone?

“Bad Boys” is Smith’s biggest movie since he won an Oscar and lost his mind, but not the first. 

In late 2022, he starred in a prestige drama for Apple called “Emancipation,” about a runaway slave during during the Civil War. Critics gave it mixed reviews, and nobody watched it.

That flop might be a blip. But it’s also a bad sign for the “Bad Boy.” 

At 55 years old, Smith’s action-hero clock is ticking.

And meaty dramas such as the tremendous “King Richard,” the Serena and Venus Williams biopic for which he won Best Actor, are essential to him sticking around. 

Yes, there are older action stars in Hollywood, but Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson and Tom Cruise don’t deliver the youthful, sexy, comedic mix that Smith does.

That steamy – rather than gritty – style gets more awkward the older the lead gets.

If you’re too long in the tooth on a beach in Miami, all of a sudden you’re “The Golden Girls.” 

Not to mention that to succeed in Oscar-bait films, the actor must have women on his side.

They represent a sizable audience for that tricky genre, and their review cannot be: “Will Smith is dead to me.”

That harsh opinion could soften.

He wasn’t canceled, MeToo’d or charged with a crime.

But the shift will take a while for the actor, who curiously hasn’t been asked any questions about the slap during his smiley press tour. 

Time heals all wounds is a cliché for a reason.

But, no matter what he does, the best years of Will Smith’s career are behind him.