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John Wick is back — for the fourth time — and heading toward a franchise record opening with “John Wick: Chapter 4,” the latest installment in the gun-slinging, knife-throwing action franchise. Lionsgate’s fourth entry opened with $8.9 million in previews at the domestic box office.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is on track to surpass the third movie’s record-setting opening weekend with an expected bow between $65 million and $70 million. Impressively, each of the films has substantially increased its opening weekend release after release.
The original “John Wick” opened with $14 million in 2014, followed by 2017’s “John Wick: Chapter 2” ($30.4 million) and 2019’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” ($56.8 million). The Thursday preview hauls have similarly grown over the years; “John Wick” had $950,000 in domestic previews; “John Wick 2” had $2.2 million and “John Wick 3” had $5.9 million.
The fourth installment of the John Wick series has the highest price tag, costing more than $100 million to produce, but it should have no trouble beating last week’s box office champ, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods.”
In the latest movie, Keanu Reeves’ master assassin returns to take down the evil High Table crime syndicate for good and must face the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, played by Bill Skarsgard, to win his freedom. Along the way, Wick also fights the blind swordsman Caine (Donnie Yen) and the mysterious tracker Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson).
Rina Sawayama and Hiroyuki Sanada join the “John Wick” universe alongside returning stars Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne and Lance Reddick, who tragically died last week at the age of 60.
Director Chad Stahelski and Reeves paid tribute to Lance Reddick ahead of the movie's premiere. Reeves said Reddick was a "people person, special artist, gentleman of grace and dignity" and it was easy to work with him. Stahelski said he had Lance in his life for almost 10 years and they had worked together on other things. We all will miss him.