A small Hollywood studio, which has struggled to stay relevant in a fast-changing movie business, gave a master class on film franchise management over the weekend.
The studio, Lionsgate, was brought back to life at the box office with the blood-soaked “John Wick: Chapter 4”, which grossed approximately $73.5 million in North American theaters, easy enough for first place. Movie series almost always fall apart by their fourth installment, if they get that far at all. But the “John Wick” franchise, built around a weary assassin played by Keanu Reeves, has now shown spectacular growth with each consecutive sequel, something no action-thriller property has done before, according to analysts. (The “Fast and Furious” franchise stumbled with chapter three, leading to a creative overhaul.)
“This character is so well established and beloved now that it could continue indefinitely, if he’s treated right,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a Newsletter in box office numbers.
The first “John Wick” hit $14 million in ticket sales in 2014 and finished its domestic run with $43 million. In 2017, “John Wick: Chapter 2” sold $30 million in its first three days and generated $92 million. “John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum” brought in $57 million in 2019 and grossed $171 million.
The “John Wick” series now surpasses the “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” franchises in terms of episode-to-episode growth. Both 1980s-era properties grew by four movies, and initial ticket sales for each new offering outranked the last, but neither skyrocketed in popularity from sequel to sequel to the same extent that “John Wick” did.
Inside the world of ‘John Wick’
The fourth installment in the action franchise starring Keanu Reeves as the titular assassin opens on March 24.
chad stahelski has directed all four “John Wick” films (he previously served as a stunt double for Reeves), backed by a production team led by basil ivanuk. They’ve expertly steered the series to bigger budgets: the last chapter cost $90 million to produce, compared to $20 million for the first, while managing to hold on to the heart; each installment has delighted critics.
“John Wick: Chapter 4”, like its predecessors, was driven by male viewers. Lionsgate estimated that 69 percent of ticket buyers were male, with 48 percent over the age of 25. (The film grossed an additional $64 million in its foreign release.)
In second place of the weekend, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” (Warner Bros.) grossed about $9.7 million, for a tepid two-week total of $46 million. “Scream VI” (Paramount) sold approximately $8.4 million in tickets, for a three-week total of about $90 million.
In 2021 and 2022, Lionsgate released a total of four films in theaters. Two were colossal flops. In 2020, Lionsgate found a hit with “Knives Out,” only for Netflix to get the pricey sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” In some ways, Lionsgate had become an industry afterthought, most often discussed in Hollywood as the next studio to fall victim to a consolidating entertainment industry.
But a change effort led by Joe Drake, Lionsgate’s president of motion pictures, may be starting to pay off. “Jesus Revolution,” released by Lionsgate last month, has sold nearly $50 million in tickets. (It cost 15 million dollars). In November, Lionsgate will revive its “Hunger Games” franchise with a prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” The studio also has sequels to “Saw” and “Expendables” on the way, along with an adaptation of “” by Judy Blume.Are you there God? it’s me, daisy.”
There’s also, of course, a lot more “John Wick” in the works, including a spinoff movie, “Dancer”, starring Ana de Armas, and a television series, “the mainland”, coming to Peacock and Prime Video.
In a conference call with analysts, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer recently described the studio’s upcoming film projects as “the strongest slate we’ve had in many, many, many years.”
