Lionsgate have been releasing a steady stream of content since the company’s first feature The Pillow Book premiered in the summer of 1997, but the studio has very few properties that have managed to draw in big box office numbers. Five of its six highest-grossing movies ever hail from The Hunger Games franchise, while the other is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, which was the only one to be distributed by Lionsgate after they merged with Summit Entertainment in 2012.
However, if the John Wick series keeps showing the same growth it has over the first three installments, then the Keanu Reeves actioners will be huge money-spinners. The beloved actor’s first outing hauled in $86 million at the box office, and Chapter 2 roughly doubled that total thanks to earning $171 million. Chapter 3 – Parabellum didn’t quite manage to repeat the trick again after topping out at $326 million, but a trio of mid-budget shoot em’ ups increasing their gross by almost 400% in the space of just three films is massively impressive nonetheless.
Chapter 4 is set to start shooting in June, and while it’s no longer filming back-to-back with Chapter 5, we know there are at least two more John Wick outings in the immediate future. However, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us the fifth installment was in development long before it was confirmed – that Lionsgate are already planning Chapters 6 and 7 as well.
Reeves said he would keep throwing on the finely tailored suits of the title character as long as there was an audience willing to see him do so, and based on the popularity of both the franchise and the man himself, John Wick looks set to continue for a long time to come.