'John Wick: Chapter 4' Projected For Huge Franchise Record Opening Of $115 Million Worldwide

The action sequel, "John Wick: Chapter 4," is poised to have a record opening weekend for the Keanu Reeves-starring franchise. Deadline reports that the film is projected to open with $115 million at the worldwide box office for its opening weekend.

The current industry projections see the movie opening to about $65-$70 million in its opening weekend in North America and $45 million overseas. That is some impressive growth for the action franchise that first debuted in 2014. The new film is also slated to be Reeves' swan song for the franchise.

The first film was released in October 2014, grossing a total of only $43 million domestically and $86 million at the worldwide box office. Its initial opening weekend was only about $14.4 million. So "John Wick: Chapter 4" will likely more than quadruple the original film's opening frame.

For comparison, the last installment of the franchise, 2019's "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" made $171 million domestically and $327 million worldwide. Its opening weekend was about $56.8 million. So the new film will likely top even the third's opening weekend.

On top of that, the film has been receiving stellar reviews from critics. It's currently rated 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. As noted by The Blast, Lionsgate also has a franchise spinoff in the works, "The Ballerina," which will star Ana de Armas. Len Wiseman is directing the feature, which is due out later in 2024.

Ahead of its release, "John Wick: Chapter 4" had a surprise screening at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas last week. It held its Los Angeles premiere on Monday (Mar. 20) night.

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The franchise's ever-expanding box office greatly resembles the scope of its franchise. The series began as a tight and lean action thriller, expanding to showcase a whole criminal underworld and a worldwide network of assassins, along with having John Wick trot across the globe, leaving behind the bodies of countless enemies.

Last week, one of the film's stars, actor Lance Reddick, shocking passed away. He was only 60 years old. Reddick portrayed Charon, the concierge and loyal confidante of Ian McShane's Winston at the Continental Hotel in the franchise.

Besides the upcoming release of "Chapter 4" and "The Ballerina," an upcoming prequel television series, "The Continental" is currently in the works for the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock. "The Continental" will be set in the 1970s before the events of the film series.

The series will follow the inner workings of the Continental Hotel in the films from the perspective of its manager, a younger Winston Scott, who is portrayed by McShane in the films. Colin Woodell portrays the younger Winston in the new show. The series will also star Ayomide Adegun as the young Charon, Peter Greene, and Mel Gibson.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" will open in theaters this Friday, March 24. The film is directed by Chad Stahelski. It stars Reeves, McShane, Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Scott Adkins, and Rina Sawayama. The film was previously expected to release in May 2021. However, it was initially delayed to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later delayed another year, moving its release from Memorial Day 2022 to March 2023.