Lionsgate earns its best launch in nearly eight years and takes in 62% of the overall weekend gross
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Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” has burst onto the box office charts with guns blazing. After earning just under $30 million on its opening day, the R-rated blockbuster has raised its estimates to a $73.5 million opening weekend from 3,855 theaters.
Keanu Reeves’ fourth round as Baba Yaga has more than quintupled the unadjusted $14.4 million opening of the first “John Wick” released back in 2014, and passed the previous franchise record of $56.8 million earned by “John Wick: Chapter 3” in May 2019. In fact, this result is the highest opening for any Lionsgate film since the final installment of the “Hunger Games” series opened to $102.6 million in November 2015.
“John Wick 4” also took in $64 million from 71 overseas territories, debuting at No. 1 in all markets as it heads to a global opening of $137.5 million, also a franchise record.
With critical acclaim for its intense and unique fight scenes, “John Wick 4” is riding high with an A on CinemaScore, Rotten Tomatoes scores of 95% critics and 96% audience, and a 93% overall positive rating on PostTrak. That should give “Wick 4” plenty of legs over the weeks to come, even with Paramount releasing “Dungeons & Dragons” to appeal to general audiences next weekend and Universal finding its own lane with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” the week after.
The bad news for other studios is that “John Wick 4” made up 62% of overall weekend grosses, leaving little else for the other films currently in theaters. The one with the biggest problems is Warner Bros./New Line’s “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” which is now locked to be a box office flop with a 68% drop from its poor $30.5 million weekend to take $9.7 million in its second frame and a 10-day total of $46.3 million that is less than the $53.5 million that the first “Shazam” made in just its opening weekend.
Paramount’s “Scream VI” and MGM’s “Creed III” are now in a narrow race for third, with “Scream VI” currently holding the edge with $8.4 million grossed in its third weekend for an $89.8 million domestic total. By next weekend, “Scream VI” will join “Smile” as the second Paramount horror film in less than a year to top $100 million in North America.
“Creed III” is just behind with $8.3 million in its fourth weekend, giving it a domestic total of $140 million. The third “Creed” film should pass $150 million by next weekend, though MGM’s plans to expand the “Rocky” spinoff series may have to continue without Jonathan Majors as the actor was arrested in New York on assault charges this weekend.
Sony’s struggling sci-fi thriller “65” completes the top five with $3.2 million in its third weekend, giving it a running total of $27.8 million.
Jeremy Fuster
Box Office Reporter • jeremy.fuster@thewrap.com • Twitter: @jeremyfuster