Unlike most franchises, John Wick (similar to Creed) has only gotten more popular thanks to home video, streaming, and airings on regular cable TV. As a result, the latest installment, John Wick: Chapter 4, had the highest opening of the brand. (Once again, just like Creed III had the highest opening for that franchise.) In fact, the second John Wick made more than the first, the third made more than the second, and now the fourth has made more than the third, which is extremely rare.
Over three days, Chapter 4 has earned $73.5M. This is especially impressive because of this picture’s nearly three-hour run time which limits the number of times theaters can screen it.
Not only is this a popular brand, but it’s also a crowd and critics-pleasing one. That’s putting it mildly. Exiting audiences gave John Wick: Chapter 4 an A CinemaScore and five stars and 93% positive via PostTrak. On Rotten Tomatoes, its critics and audience score are tied at 95%.
As the saying goes, John Wick: Chapter 4 “sucked the air out of” theaters, meaning that this was essentially the only movie anyone went out to see. Once again, Chapter 4 accumulated $70.6M. NONE of the other movies in the Top Five even made it into the double digits!
It was neck-and-neck for the #2 spot. At one point, it looked as though last week’s #1, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods, which had a notably weak opening, might actually plummet to the #3 spot. However, it rallied and came in at #2.
After its poor $30M opening, Fury of the Gods dropped 68%. It’s perfectly normal that a comic book movie suffers a major drop in its second weekend. 68% is normal… except that Fury of the Gods‘ opening was so low to begin with, that this is a particularly poor showing.
As mentioned, no other movie, outside of John Wick: Chapter 4, even made it into the double digits. Fury of the Gods managed to take in $9.7M.
Last weekend’s #2 picture, Scream VI dropped to #3 with an $8.4M take.
The previously mentioned Creed III is hanging in at #4. So far, it generated $140.6M, while the dinosaur adventure 65 rounded out the Top Five, which you can check out below.
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- John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate) – 3-day $73.5M/Wk 1
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $9.7M/ Total $46.3M/ Wk 2
- Scream VI (Paramount) – 3-day $8.4M/ Total $89.9M/Wk 3
- Creed III (MGM) – 3-day $8.36M/ Total $140.88M/Wk 4
- 65 (Sony) – 3-day $3.25M/ Total $27.8M/Wk 3
Along the lines of Fury of the Gods, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania continues to drop. It fell just out of the Top Five (again), landing at #6 with $2.1M. This brings its running total to $209.5M. This is weak for an MCU movie, but it doesn’t look like Fury of the Gods will even come close to that.
Next week should be interesting. John Wick: Chapter 4 is such a powerhouse that it could easily reign for multiple weeks, but there this a lot of competition as the summer movie season is already ramping up and a lot of high-profile, big-budget flicks are hitting screens.
Next week’s big entry is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Paramount has been pushing HARD with multiple advance screenings and loads of online promotions. Amazon hosted an advanced screening for Prime members, which is a practice that studios have used when they think they have a real winner on their hands, but that it is a film that is maybe more middle of the road and may get lost in the shuffle. It worked in the past for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Aquaman.
Paramount clearly wants to get the word out there that D&D is actually a really enjoyable film. While it may not be at the top of everyone’s must-see list, it ought to be. As of right now, based on 73 reviews, D&D has an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score.
But with John Wick having just arrived, it’s questionable whether or not D&D can best it. But we’ll see. John Wick 4 might be frontloaded with most fans having checked it out on the opening weekend. If that is the case, that could allow D&D to take the top spot. But if it doesn’t, it’s also possible that positive word of mouth will lead this picture having legs over the coming month or so.
But working against D&D is those advanced screenings. The money made on those will not be added to its opening weekend haul, so if too many people have already seen it and don’t go back for opening weekend, that could dampen its premiere performance.
This March has been packed and don’t expect that to let off… at least for another week. Obviously, we have D&D opening next weekend and that will be followed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the first full weekend of April. There are already pundits that speculate that this could be the first film of 2023 to hit the billion-dollar mark. (I have my doubts.)
However, after that, there will be a three-week drought with no other major releases. (Maaaaaaybe Paramount should have held on to D&D and released it a little later to give John Wick some room to breathe?) The next major release of this season will be Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 which opens on May 3.
What have you been checking out? What movies are you most looking forward to?
