'John Wick: Chapter 4' Dominates Weekend Box Office With Franchise Record

Sometimes it pays to remember not to mess with John Wick, and it looks like the box office competitors learned that the hard way this weekend. "John Wick: Chapter 4" finally hit theaters, after multiple delays, last Friday (Mar. 24), and the film grossed its highest box office opening weekend ever at $73.5 million, per Box Office Mojo.

The action movie was riding a wave of positive momentum into theaters this weekend. The film had a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. That is also a franchise best for the film series. The audience score is also very high at 95% right now. Not to mention, this had the auspice of being the "conclusion" of the John Wick Saga.

Despite a rather epic length at just under three hours, many fans felt the longer runtime was earned and deserved despite the first coming in at a runtime of only 101 minutes. It seems the filmmakers and director Chad Stahelski had built this blowoff film rather well, and audiences showed up in droves.

Overseas, "Chapter 4" brought in another $64 million to bring its current worldwide total to $137 million. The domestic opening surpassed the previous franchise record, "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum," which opened to $56.8 million in May 2019.

Currently, the domestic and international totals to beat are for the third film, which finished with $171 million domestically and $327 million worldwide. If "Chapter 4" can have similar performances in upcoming weekends, it certainly has the potential to best "Parabellum." Its biggest upcoming competition next weekend will be "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," which is also riding high on momentum from positive early reviews.

In terms of what's next for the "John Wick" franchise, Ana de Armas is slated to star in a spinoff feature, "Ballerina," which is due out next year from director Len Wiseman and writers Shay Hatten and Emerald Fennell. Angelica Huston, who appeared in "Chapter 3 - Parabellum" as The Director, is set to reprise her role for the upcoming film spinoff.

A prequel spinoff television miniseries, "The Continental," is also in the works, and it's slated to debut later on Peacock. The story will explore how a young Winston Scott (Ian McShane in the films) became the manager of The Continental, a hotel and safe haven for the film series' underground world of assassins.

Elsewhere in the Top 5, "Creed III" came in at No. 2 during its fourth weekend, grossing another $10.4 million to bring its domestic total to $140.9 million. Meanwhile, "Shazam: Fury of the Gods" had a huge drop in its second weekend, falling 67% to bring in only $9.7 million for its second weekend. Its current domestic total now stands at $46 million. "Scream VI" dropped 51.5% in its third weekend to bring in $8.4 million for its third weekend. It's now made approximately $89.9 million domestically and $139.2 million worldwide. The film still appears to be on track to become the highest-grossing installment of the slasher franchise ever.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is in theaters now. The film is directed by Stahelski and stars Keanu Reeves, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Donnie Yen, the late Lance Reddick, and McShane.