‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Conquers Box Office With $70 Million-Plus Opening

Jeremy Fuster
·2 min read
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Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” is off to an excellent start at the box office. It is currently projected to at least meet independent pre-release projections of a $70 million-plus opening, and depending on how the rest of the weekend plays out, it may go well beyond that.

“John Wick 4” earned $29.4 million on its opening day in 3,855 theaters, and reception has been as staggeringly high as it was for “Top Gun: Maverick” last year. The CinemaScore grade is an A. The Rotten Tomatoes scores are 95% critics and 96% audience.

With such strong word-of-mouth, it would not be surprising for weekend estimates to keep rising thanks to walk-up traffic on Saturday and Sunday, possibly lifting the film closer to $80 million. Even if it doesn’t, “John Wick 4” has already exceeded the $56.8 million opening of “John Wick: Chapter 3” back in May 2019, and is the highest opening for any Lionsgate film since the $102.6 million opening of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” in November 2015.

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But while Lionsgate is enjoying such strong results, things are only getting worse for Warner Bros./New Line’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” which is having its flop status locked in place with just $2.3 million grossed on its second Friday.

That represents an 80% from the DC sequel’s opening day with industry estimates projecting a weekend total of $8.5-9 million, a drop of at least 69% from opening weekend. That’s also barely above the third weekend of Paramount/Spyglass’ “Scream VI” with an estimated $8.4 million and the fourth weekend of MGM’s “Creed III” with an estimated $8.2 million.”

With a 10-day estimated domestic total of $45 million, “Shazam 2” hasn’t even yet passed the $53.5 million opening weekend total of the first “Shazam.”

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