Even though one is a fun-filled superhero blockbuster geared towards audiences of all ages and the other is a brutal, R-rated action extravaganza loaded to the brim with blood and bullets, John Wick: Chapter 4 has arrived to utterly decimate Shazam! Fury of the Gods at the box office.
Continuing the franchise’s remarkable upward trajectory, Keanu Reeves’ fourth outing as the titular hitman has set another new record for the series by scooping up an estimated $73.5 million in its opening weekend, in addition to international ticket sales pushing its global haul up to an impressive $137 million.
That’s an incredible return for a butt-numbing shoot ’em up that runs for almost three hours, but it’s been a disaster for David F. Sandberg’s DCU sequel by comparison. Fury of the Gods may have improved upon its embarrassing Friday-to-Friday decline of 80 percent, but a 68 percent drop and a sophomore haul of only $9.7 million is very bad news indeed.
Zachary Levi’s sophomore solo adventure still hasn’t cleared $50 million on home soil, which is one of the worst performances by any big budget comic book blockbuster that wasn’t dropped into multiplexes in the throes of the pandemic’s height. A threequel is virtually dead in the water by this point, but it’s the future of John Wick that’s going to be coming under more scrutiny.
Prequel TV show The Continental and spinoff Ballerina are on the way, but there are plenty of questions lingering over Chapter 5, but you can bet that Lionsgate will be doing everything it can to convince Reeves and Stahelski to make at least one more.