How did the theatrical release of ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Day & Date with Russia emerge amid the studio boycott?

EXCLUSIVE: After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, Hollywood left the thriving and profitable box office area, and the first studios, Disney and Warner Bros., pulled their major films out of the country. Blush And The dough.

Last weekend, however, Lionsgate did John Wick: Chapter 4 broke through the Iron Curtain, an overseas territory historically rich with Keanu Reeves’ action franchise, to become the biggest Hollywood tentpole to hit theaters since the unofficial boycott of the market began. The film scored a record debut of $4.3 million, up 33% John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellums starts in Russia based on today’s exchange rates. Worldwide, for 71 foreign territories, John Wick: Chapter 4 enjoyed a franchise-record opening of $137.5 million, $73.8 million domestic. After Hollywood’s refusal to do business with Russia, pirate films have flooded theaters with some new titles entering the country.

how did John Wick: Chapter 4Is the release coming from Russia?

Joe Drake, chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture, told Deadline: “We had previous contracts, we had obligations that we had to fulfill.” to purchase cinema programmes; the fourth film here is estimated at $100 million before P&A expenses. Lionsgate Russian presale continues John Wick: Chapter 4 before he invaded the country in Ukraine last year.

“As part of fulfilling those obligations, we conducted extensive investigations into the existence of unauthorized parties,” Drake added.

This unauthorized distributor who publishes John Wick: Chapter 4 in Russia was Unicorn Media Limited, an unsanctioned Maltese company with whom Lionsgate had previously worked. Unicorn also oversaw the marketing of the Chad Stahelski-directed domestic action film.

Drake told Deadline that the studio worked with the US State Department to release the picture in Russia. The US and UK government agencies maintain lists of sanctioned companies with which the US Corps is prohibited from doing business.

“There were a number of steps we had to take,” Drake said, “we felt comfortable delivering the film and consulted with talent.”

We understand that Lionsgate has a general studio policy that they have stopped new business with Russia, but they are sticking to pre-existing contracts with parties not sanctioned in the country.

For John Wick: Chapter 4Lionsgate had a previous release in Russia, the romantic comedy Jennifer Lopez, forced marriage, streamed directly to the US on Prime Video. Released in Russia by Global Film, this film opened at $310.5,000 and ended at $1.1 million per Box Office Mojo. We have been told that Global Film is also an unauthorized distributor.

While Lionsgate had the Gerard Butler film, Aircraft, and the action title directed by Guy Ritchie, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, In the United States, the Russian releases of these pictures were not presold by the studio. Aircraft was released by Central Partnership in Russia with production by AZ Celtic Films/Miramax/STX Films/Tencent Pictures Surgery luck was provided by Global Film.

The studio declined to comment on whether their upcoming fall tentpole, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and SerpentsShe would get a Russian release. However, it is the concept of Deadline that is different John Wick, there is no pre-existing agreement about it hunger games predecessors in Russia.

As an example of what is going on in Russia, we were also told that there is an encouragement to see pirated films in theaters and even wait for higher quality, unauthorized versions. In an article from December 19 on Izvestiait was announced Avatar: the way of water was set to hit theaters on December 22, although Disney has not released the film there. A translated version of the article reads: “The film is promised to be professionally dubbed in 4K quality. The only problem is that it will be 2D, without glasses and without immersion. We found only one cinema that promises full-fledged 3D, but not everyone will be able to enjoy this spectacle – the screenings will take place in Krasnoyarsk.” The report further noted that in Yakutsk “Cinema-Center guarantees high-quality copies, but unfortunately only in 2D.”

The same article warned: “This film does not and cannot have a distribution certificate: the Disney copyright owner does not work in Russia.” And then suggested: “Higher quality copies will most likely arrive by January 12th, and with 3D it will be easier.”

Interestingly, despite the lack of major studio films, the box office in Russia was quite healthy. OpusData figures compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence showed that the January box office was the biggest in Europe (NB: Russia is sometimes considered an APAC market). According to these figures, January was worth $99 million, up 390.6% from the same period in 2022. The Leader was a locally produced children’s animated comedy Cheburashka with $84.4 million this month. The second biggest grosser was the one directed by Guy Ritchie Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre at $7.2 million (now estimated at $9.7 million).

In total and according to Gower Street Analytics, from 2023 to March 18, the Russian box office amounted to 12.6 billion rubles ($163 million), an increase of 14.5% compared to the comparable period of 2022 and 11.3% behind the 2017-2019 pre-pandemic average.