Since the release of John Wick: Chapter 2 in 2017, director Chad Stahelski's action series has established a pattern. In its opening weekend, the movie made almost double what its 2014 predecessor had made in its first three days, and then John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum arrived in 2019 to blow those numbers out of the water. We've had to wait a few extra years since then for the third sequel, but now John Wick: Chapter 4 is here, and it has put up yet another franchise record-breaking figure (the third of its kind this March following Michael B. Jordan's Creed III and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Scream IV).
Check out the full Top 10 in the chart below, and join me after for analysis.
John Wick: Chapter 4 Has The Biggest Opening Weekend For An R-Rated Film Since 2020
John Wick: Chapter 4 has been building up buzz for weeks now. Social media reactions went online at the start of the month hyping the epic action film, and the positive vibes only got stronger as reviews came out following the movie's premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival. In the days before release, it secured the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any title in the franchise – and now it is a certified blockbuster.
In just three days in theaters, John Wick: Chapter 4 has made $73.5 million, which is more than what the original John Wick made during its entire domestic run, and only about $19 million short of what John Wick: Chapter 2 made in the same territory. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum was previously the big box office record holder for the series – having made $56.8 million in its first Friday-to-Sunday and $171 million during the totality of its run in the United States in Canada – but the 2023 follow-up has already surpassed that first high water mark and it won't be long before it does the same to the second.
What's even more impressive about the numbers is how they exceeded even the most recent expectations. At the end of last week, Deadline reported that prognosticators were estimating that John Wick: Chapter 4's ticket sales would end up in the $65-70 million range, but demand just kept going up during the weekend.
What's perhaps most exciting about John Wick: Chapter 4's performance is the kind of harmony that it's creating in the movie world – one that is filled with a whole lot of love. It's so often the case that critics and audiences are on different wavelengths when it comes to hot new releases, but the opposite is in play right now. The 95 percent critics score that the film has on Rotten Tomatoes is mirrored by a 95 percent audience score, and as a cherry on top, CinemaScore surveys have resulted in the blockbuster getting an "A" grade.
Everybody everywhere is appreciating just about everything that the Keanu Reeves movie has to offer (and only making this more amazing is the fact that we're talking about an action film that is nearly three hours long).
Will that translate to John Wick: Chapter 4 demonstrating strong legs in the weeks ahead? I think that it's safe to say yes. There are some big and hyped titles set to come out in the next few weeks – including John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein's Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic's The Super Mario Bros. Movie – but both of those films are aiming at younger demographics. If it doesn't lose its box office crown this upcoming weekend, it definitely will next weekend – but I suspect that it will be able to stick around in the Top 5 for most of April as a spectacle that deserves the big screen experience.
Things Didn't Exactly Get Better For Shazam! Fury Of The Gods In Its Second Weekend
When a film generates a lot of headlines about disappointing opening weekend box office numbers, it generally doesn't result in good things for the second weekend... and David F. Sandberg's Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has not defied the logic of that pattern. The DC Studios-release, which was made with a budget of $125 million (per Variety) got a lot of "oof" reactions last Sunday when it was revealed that it had only brought in $30.5 million domestically, and things have not improved seven days later.
While not as bad as the 70 percent weekend-to-weekend drop experienced by Peyton Reed's Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania last month, The Numbers reports that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods saw its ticket sales drop 68 percent compared to its debut. The superhero blockbuster was able to only drop one spot in the rankings – moving from first to second place – but it failed to make eight figures and only brought in $9.7 million.
Thus far, the film starring Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler has not yet made back its production budget – which doesn't include expenses for publicity and marketing. Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has made $46.3 million domestically and $56.1 million overseas, totaling a worldwide gross of $102.4 million. It should probably go without saying that there is very little chance that we will see the canon from the series continued in the rebooted DC Universe that is in the works from new DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran.
You'll note in the chart at the top of this article that all of the movies in this weekend's Top 10 simply shifted down one spot in the rankings to accommodate for the phenomenal debut of John Wick: Chapter 4 – but will the same thing happen next week after Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves arrives on the big screen this Friday? Or will we get to see a major shuffle occur? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next weekend for our latest box office report.
In the meantime, you can preview all of the films scheduled to be released in the weeks and months ahead via our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
