'John Wick: Chapter 3' is Off to a Great Start

The third installment in Keanu Reeves' John Wick movie franchise looks like it will do better than its predecessors, at least if its performance on Thursday night is any indication. Read on for details.


Via Deadline.

Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum grossed a great $5.9 million last night, a figure that blows away the R-rated action pic’s previous previews. That ranks it as the highest Thursday night preview gross in Lionsgate history outside of Twilight: Breaking Dawn 2 and The Hunger Games films. The pic opened on 3,000 screens.

The first John Wick Thursday previews earned $950,000, while John Wick 2 made $2.2M, which repped 20% of its $10.95M Friday. John Wick 3‘s Thursday is even higher than the previews for Sony/MGM’s last James Bond movie Spectre, which made $5.25M (and went on to earn a $27.4M Friday), and even 2012’s Skyfall ($4.6M Thursday, $30.5M Friday), though both of those pics were PG-13.

The Keanu Reeves’ R-rated action threequel from director Chad Stahelski (who helmed John Wick: Chapter 2) is poised to see the series’ highest domestic opening this weekend with $50M at 3,850 theaters, finally unseating Disney’s Avengers: Endgame in its fourth weekend. The Marvel epic is expected to do $30M at 4,220 theaters, and led all titles Thursday with $3.4M at 4,662 sites bringing its three-week running total to $741.38M.

If that $30M estimate sticks by Sunday, Avengers: Endgame will topple Avatar as the second-highest grossing film at the domestic box office ($760.5M) with a cume that’s north of $771M.

We hear that early PostTrak results for John Wick 3 are similar to part 2: largely males over 25, then females over 25, followed by males under 25 and females under 25. This is a franchise that has grown with age thanks in large part to its play in the home ancillary market. The first John Wick on October 24, 2014 opened to $14.4M, and John Wick 2 opened to $30.4M.

In part 3, the assassin is on the run after killing a member of the international assassin’s guild, and has a $14M price tag on his head — he is the target of hit men and hit women everywhere. Halle Berry and Ian McShane also star.

Get the rest of the story at Deadline.


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