'John Wick 3' Kills The Box Office With Franchise-Best Opening As 'Endgame' Continues To Creep On 'Avatar'

The final kill count from “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is yet to be determined. However, the biggest, most important death at the hands of Keanu Reeves’ famous assassin character is perhaps “Avengers: Endgame.” After three weeks atop the box office, Mr. Wick is the first person that has been able to slay the Marvel Studios beast.

Honestly, ‘John Wick 3’ would have had to experience some sort of colossal failure at the box office to not gain the #1 spot this weekend. And luckily for Lionsgate, not only did ‘Wick’ not stumble, the action film destroyed its own personal bests on its way to a franchise record opening. Long story short, in a world where potential franchises find themselves DOA at the box office, “John Wick” is not only surviving, but is actually thriving.

READ MORE: ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ Somehow Ups The Action Ante Yet Again In The Franchise’s Most Explosive Installment [Review]

In its first weekend at the domestic box office, ‘JW3’ opened to a superb $57 million. Not only is that number almost double that of the box office opening frame for the last film in the series ($30.4 million), but ‘Parabellum’ has already eclipsed the entire domestic run of the first film ($43 million). So, as I said, ‘John Wick’ is not just a successful third film in a franchise, but the biggest out of the three, by a large margin.

But the good news keeps coming in for Reeves and Lionsgate. You see, ‘Parabellum’ isn’t just a big hit in North America. The film has already begun its worldwide release and debuted with an impressive $35.2 million internationally. That gives ‘John Wick 3’ the great $92.2 million worldwide total for its opening weekend. Obviously, these numbers are relative and pale in comparison to something like ‘Avengers,’ but when you see that the worldwide opening weekend has already outgrossed the entire worldwide run of the first film ($88 million) and over half of the entire run of the second film ($170 million), you begin to realize how happy everyone involved must be.

READ MORE: ‘John Wick 3’: Director Chad Stahelski Talks Dogs, Horses, Gun-Fu & Ninjas On Motorcycles [Interview]

Now, the real question (at least for every other studio out there hoping to launch a new franchise) is, how the hell does ‘John Wick’ do it? The first film was nothing more than a cult favorite during its initial box office run, attracting the diehard action fans and having some decent enough word-of-mouth. But the real trick is that momentum on the film built in the aftermarket with digital and DVD/Blu-Ray releases.

When the second film reached theaters only two-and-a-half years later, fans had already discovered the first either at home or in the multiplex and were primed and ready to see what was in store. ‘John Wick 2’ more than doubled the first at the box office. And now, Lionsgate not only kept the momentum going for the third, releasing this film only two years after the last, but upped the action ante to an almost absurd amount, earning rave reviews (89% on Rotten Tomatoes) and fan reaction (‘A-’ Cinemascore). Combine that with great marketing, and you have this box office total.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, start with a modest budget and a quality film, and slowly build your audience. Good product plus quality marketing equals solid box office.

READ MORE: Tilda Swinton Talks ‘Dead Don’t Die,’ ‘Souvenir’ & That ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Cameo [Interview]

Now that I’ve properly bowed at the altar of Wick, it’s time to move onto the biggest story of the last month – “Avengers: Endgame.” The film dropped a decent -53.5% in its fourth weekend, coming in at #2 with $29.4 million domestically. This showing was good enough to give ‘Endgame’ an estimated $771 million in North America, passing the James Cameron epic “Avatar” for #2 on the all-time list. But let’s be real, that was an all-but-certain achievement. The real action is worldwide, where the superhero film is still creeping on the monster “Avatar” box office record ($2.788 billion).

Marvel Studios’ superhero epic earned another $46.8 million internationally, bringing its total box office cume within $173 million of “Avatar” with $2.615 billion. Internationally, the film is dropping almost exactly the same as the domestic run, with -55%. We’re not at the world record just yet, but the folks over at Disney are probably anxiously awaiting next weekend to see just what happens.

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Not that the film is going to break the record next weekend, either. However, next weekend is the big Memorial Day Weekend, which means that box office totals will be slightly inflated for the three day holiday. Again, don’t expect ‘Endgame’ to somehow surprise the world over the long weekend, as the competition is going to ramp up. But by Tuesday of next week, we’ll have a much better look at what the future may hold, as the film finds itself deep in the heart of massive competition (including from its own mothership studio Disney). $173 million doesn’t seem like a lot of money, relatively speaking, but for Disney and Marvel Studios, it must feel like it’s the size of the Grand Canyon.

‘John Wick 3’ isn’t the only film that debuted over the weekend. But honestly, when you look at the top 10, it might as well have been.

Family-friendly pet film “A Dog’s Journey” opened to a middling $8 million in its opening weekend. The second film in Universal’s “A Dog” franchise (beginning with 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose”), the pet-friendly sequel isn’t trending like ‘John Wick,’ at all. The $8 million opening domestically is less than half of ‘Purpose’s’ debut ($18.8 million). Counter-programming just couldn’t get the job done this weekend.

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The same can be said with YA romance, “The Sun is Also a Star.” Debuting with a terrible $2.6 million, Warner Bros. is probably very disappointed with the film. Normally, a low total like this wouldn’t necessarily spell death to a low-budget YA romance. However, these things live and die by word-of-mouth, and sadly, “The Sun is Also a Star” just won’t have that going for it. Bad reviews (50% on Rotten Tomatoes) combined with a dreadful ‘B-’ Cinemascore leads me to believe that this film is one that will find its way out of theaters and into the aftermarket abyss sooner than later.

In limited release, it’s once again a tale of two films. Buzz and word-of-mouth are so important when you’re talking about these arthouse/indie films. Case in point, the difference between “The Souvenir” and “Trial by Fire.” Both come from respected filmmakers, with Joanna Hogg and Edward Zwick, respectively. Both have reasonable star-power, with Tilda Swinton and Laura Dern, respectively.

READ MORE: ‘The Souvenir’: Suffering Yields Reinvention For a Young Artist in Joanna Hogg’s Exquisitely Personal Drama [Sundance Review]

Yet, “The Souvenir” has that coveted buzz with an incredible 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with film fans chomping at the bit to see what Hogg, Swinton, and the young actress Honor Swinton Byrne (Tilda’s daughter) have up their sleeve. In fact, the buzz was so strong for this film, which is executive produced by Martin Scorsese, a sequel has already been fast-tracked, with Robert Pattinson signed to co-star. This hype boosted “The Souvenir” to a very respectable $21,463 per-theater-average (PTA) in four locations.

READ MORE: Edward Zwick Talks The Long Process Of Producing ‘Trial By Fire’ & The Politics Of The Death Penalty [Interview]

That leaves “Trial by Fire” as the cautionary tale of what can go wrong with an aggressive limited release. As mentioned, ‘Trial’ had the components of a good indie/arthouse film, but in its 109 theater launch this weekend, the film only earned a $723 PTA. All told, “Trial by Fire” actually earned less than “The Souvenir” in total box office, despite opening in 105 more locations. As mentioned, it seems as if word-of-mouth killed this film, with hardly any buzz and only a 58% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Next weekend is a big holiday for the film industry, with three wide debuts, headlined by Disney’s own “Aladdin” live-action remake. Can film fans forgive a terrible marketing campaign? Is name recognition enough to lift Guy Ritchie’s film? Does Will Smith still have what it takes to open a film by himself? It’ll be interesting to find out. Joining “Aladdin” are the superhero horror film “Brightburn” and the incredible (seriously, just go see this movie ASAP) coming-of-age comedy “Booksmart.”

Here’s the domestic top ten for May 17 to May 19:
1. John Wick 3 – $57M (Debut)
2. Avengers: Endgame – $29.4M ($771M Overall)
3. Detective Pikachu – $25M ($94M)
4. A Dog’s Journey – $8M (Debut)
5. The Hustle – $6.1M ($23M)
6. The Intruder – $4M ($28M)
7. Long Shot – $3.4M ($25.7M)
8. The Sun is Also a Star – $2.6M (Debut)
9. Poms – $2.1M ($10M)
10. UglyDolls – $1.6M ($17.2M)