One unique quality of the “John Wick” franchise — and one Lionsgate has been happy to tout — is that each entry in the series has been bigger than the last. Audiences can’t seem to get enough of “Wick.”
But for the franchise’s first (big screen) spinoff, one that’s introducing a new character and turns Keanu Reeves’ iconic Wick into a supporting character, it would not have been fair to expect “Ballerina” to continue that growth streak. Still, the Ana de Armas-led action film underperformed even with lower expectations. Opening to an estimated $25 million domestic, it’s lower than all but the original “Wick” movie from 2014, which opened to $14.4 million before becoming a sleeper hit.
Tracking suggested “Ballerina” could surpass $35 million domestic and take down “Lilo & Stitch” from the #1 spot. With $32.5 million, the Disney live-action remake will stay on top for a third week. And even Lionsgate was hoping “Ballerina” could at least match what “John Wick: Chapter 2” did in 2017, earning $30.4 million.
But Lionsgate is not panicking. “Ballerina” had a production budget of $90 million, but the studio sells most of its international territories in advance, so it’s still expecting “Ballerina” to be profitable for the studio. The movie is also currently at $51 million worldwide, and with an A- CinemaScore and not a whole lot of other action movies the next few weeks, it could leg out nicely.
Had “Ballerina” over-performed the way several other recent films at the box office have, we might already be talking “Ballerina 2,” but now that’s less assured. The fourth film performed so well — $73.8 million opening and $440 million worldwide — that the studio is effectively bringing Wick back from the dead in order to make yet another sequel.
That’s because Lionsgate has A LOT riding on the “John Wick” franchise. Not including “Ballerina” or the Peacock spinoff series “The Continental,” Lionsgate has announced a “John Wick” video game, a spinoff on the blind assassin character “Caine” played by Donnie Yen (he’s also directing), an animated prequel film about how Wick completed the fabled “Impossible Task” and won his freedom, a documentary called “Wick Is Pain” about the making of the series’ many stylish action sequences and stunts, and of course “John Wick Chapter 5.”
“Ballerina” originated not as a “Wick” spinoff, but as an original spec script before being fit into the larger story universe, and the film was delayed to allow for some reshoots (director Len Wiseman recently said the reshoots were not a negative as had been suggested but because “the studio loved it” and wanted to add more), so it’s been a long time coming since audiences first saw de Armas as a Bond girl and thought she deserved her own action franchise.
But with any luck, should “Ballerina” return to the screen, perhaps its sequels can start their own growth streak from these more modest beginnings.
