Lionsgate’s Joe Drake Wants Keanu Reeves In More John Wick Pics After Chapter 4 Franchise Record BO Debut

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chairman Joe Drake had a lot to celebrate this morning as the studio announced a worldwide and national theatrical debut for the John Wick franchise with John Wick: Chapter 4 $137.5 million WW and earned $73.5 million. The fourth source was the best received John Wick all time by viewers (A CinemaScore) and critics (95% fresh certified). The film is probably the second best worldwide opening for Reeves The Matrix Revolution $201.4 million.

In spite of Chapter 4 Drake, a redoubtable swansong of Reeves’ nuclear-cannon-martial-arts-maestro title character, tells Deadline today, “We’re not ready to say goodbye to Keanu with this franchise, this is the alternative that’s going to be.”

Reeves confirms to an enthusiastic SXSW crowd that he will be back for the John Wick turnoff, the ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and directed by Len Wiseman. But Drake’s hope is that there’s still more left for Reeves in canon.

“There are a lot of different things we can do,” adds Drake.

“I’ve seen this film five times in the past week,” says the manager, “I see how the audience films it.”

When will we see the ballerina, Drake tells us a date is planned for 2024, either in the spring or summer. The original Starz series, now Peacock John Wick turnoff, The Continentals Drake might be looking at a fall premiere and telling us “the episodes are almost done”.

John Wick Films have been played across the calendar, including the first in October 2014, the second in February 2017, and the third in May 2019. The fourth Quel previously had a Memorial Day weekend release in 2022 before production delays pushed it to the current 24 April brought . March shifted -26 frames (Chapter 4 was completed late last year). Drake told us March looked ripe as Lionsgate was very happy with the first weekend hunger games (Opens $152.5 million).

“We loved March as a place to open it,” he adds, “The story is there for us. There’s a nice springboard here because I think the film can twist and turn given the CinemaScore. “

In terms of marketing, it was important not to sell the picture as the old, old John Wick “This is the end.” Instead, he emphasized to the CEO, “John Wick is not a superhero, he’s a guy who lost what he loved at the beginning of this franchise; everything he did after that motivated his actions. (He is) a man who seeks peace. There is a chance that John Wick will find peace.”

“We saw a way to enrich the audience’s experience, so they find peace that they have a chance to come out.”

A key image in the one-sheets was the image of an hourglass “tie” filled with bullet casings hanging around John Wick’s neck.

What never ceases to amaze us is the how John Wick is a non-superhero original franchise that mushroomed after audiences found the first film in the home entertainment storefront and turned the sequels into tentpoles. The first John Wick opened in October 2014 to $14.4 million and rounded out to $43 million domestic, $86 million WW. John Wick: Chapter 2 grew in February 2017 with US$30.4 million/Canada starting and ending status US$92 million and US$174.3 million WW. Then the one from 2019 John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum reached greater heights with a domestic opening of $56.8 million, a finale of $171 million and a WW take of $328.3 million. With the opening of chapter 4, The John Wick Franchise is now up and running $726.2 million.

In the 80s and 90s, it was common for franchises to build a big screen afterlife at home due to their popularity. Austin Powers be one of the great textbook examples. John Wick was an old-fashioned example that paved the way for a time when DVD sales were faltering and streaming was tumbling to the big screen in terms of the types of movies that worked.

As for the phenomenon of home entertainment on the big screen John Wick the last of its kind?

Drake says it’s that kind of success in the movie industry that “gets me up every morning.”

“We had a movie in it John Wick, and a small video in it The Hunger Gamessaid Drake, “I think there’s another one.”