John Wick 4’s Box Office Numbers Are In, So Where Does This Leave Keanu Reeves’ John Wick 5?
The high box office grosses of John Wick: Chapter 4 make it likely John Wick 5 will actually happen.
Keanu Reeves’ John Wick: Chapter 4 is off to a very strong start at the box office, crushing franchise records with a $73.5 million opening weekend (via Variety). This is nearly $20 million more than the opening weekend of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, meaning the franchise is only getting more profitable. So, where does that leave the ambiguous fate for the next film in the franchise John Wick 5?
The box office has spoken, and the critics and audiences are raving about John Wick: Chapter 4, so clearly there is a lot of love for the franchise still. If they decide to make John Wick 5, there’s little doubt that people will fill the theaters to see the chapter of the story. While money usually talks in Hollywood, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the movie is 100 percent going to happen.
Still, it seems incredibly likely that we will get John Wick 5 at some point. Consider the fact that in 2020, John Wick: Chapter 4 and 5 were both greenlit to film back-to-back. Of course, the pandemic had other ideas, and that back-to-back filming schedule did not work out. This led to John Wick: Chapter 4 being delayed by quite a bit and the fifth movie being temporarily tabled.
So, there was once a time when John Wick 5 was fully greenlit and ready to film, so we might not even be having this conversation in an alternate universe where the pandemic doesn’t happen. But, as it stands, the certainty of a fifth movie is still a bit up in the air. Director Chad Stahelski, the man in the director chair for every film in the franchise, has been fairly non-committal about his involvement in another film.
Back in March, Stahleski indicated he would be open to making another movie he said that they would be giving the franchise a rest for now. He also acknowledges that the studio, Lionsgate, may have other plans and a different timeline. If Stahleski’s not ready to work within Lionsgate’s preferred timeline for John Wick 5, it’s (remotely) possible that it might be the first Wick film without him directing.
However, Stahleski’s most recent statements seem more optimistic, as he very recently told Deadline “As for John Wick, you will never [hear] Keanu or I say, we’re done,” adding “We’re proud of what we’ve done, flattered people want to see more, and we want to continue that and will be there to help out.” This definitely seems like a firmer commitment that he would be happy to come back for John Wick 5. It also helps confirm Keanu’s position on coming back for another film.
Reeves has also previously said that the existence of John Wick 5 would depend on the performance of John Wick: Chapter 4. Clearly, the fourth movie is performing beyond expectations, so it seems likely that Keanu would be on board for the film at the very least. This obviously matters since you can’t really have a John Wick movie without John Wick.
Of course, you can have a John Wick spin-off movie without John Wick, which is what we’ll be getting with the spin-offs Ballerina and The Continental. Even if we don’t get John Wick 5, the John Wickverse will likely still be thriving in the various spin-offs Lionsgate has in the works. Ballerina will star Ana de Armas as an assassin seeking revenge for the death of her family (and will actually feature a cameo from John Wick, so that’s a bonus).
The Continental is a spin-off series about the titular hotel/assassin base and will follow younger versions of Ian McShane’s Winston and Lance Reddick’s Charon. Fans are undoubtedly still going to want John Wick 5, but it helps that we’ll be getting these spin-offs regardless. The John Wick universe has plenty of potential and it seems likely that the franchise could survive without Keanu if necessary.
With all that being said, an opening weekend is still just an opening weekend. Before saying definitely that John Wick: Chapter 4 is doing well enough to warrant making John Wick 5, we’ll have to wait and see if it continues to roll in the big bucks at the box office. Of course, it seems highly unlikely that the movie won’t make a ton of money, but you never know.
While we wait for more news on John Wick 5, you can now check out John Wick: Chapter 4 in theaters. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown, Natalia Tena, Marko Zaror, and Ian McShane. Stay tuned for more info on future John Wick projects.
