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With overseas rollout having begun Wednesday, Lionsgate/Thunder Road Films/87 Eleven’s John Wick: Chapter 4 is off to a strong start at the international box office. Across just a handful of markets, figures we’re hearing put the early estimated cume at roughly $3.9M through Wednesday and including Australia and New Zealand’s Thursday launches. As Anthony reported, Thursday’s domestic previews of around $8M are looking at a franchise-best, per industry estimates.
The Keanu Reeves fourquel is bowing in 71 international box office markets this weekend, the biggest day-and-date footprint for the franchise which has previously tended to release in staggered fashion. The global outlook coming into the weekend is $115M, including $45M from offshore. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum‘s international opening back in 2019 was $36.9M for $93.75M worldwide, a previous global record start for the series. Parabellum didn’t have Germany, France and Spain in its opening suite, though those major territories are included in Chapter 4‘s first frame.
In Latin America, we understand paid Wednesday previews came in at $994K led by Brazil at $328K and followed by Mexico with $240K. Only about 60% of Latin America cinemas held sneaks, boding well for the weekend ahead. Reeves stopped in at CCXP in Brazil last December to promote the pic.
Premieres were also held recently at Berlin’s Zoo Palast and Paris’ Grand Rex.
Germany, consistently a top market for the John Wick movies, grossed an estimated $635K in Wednesday evening previews, coming in 40% higher than the previous installment. Regular shows began Thursday on 800+ screens, the widest R-rated release in the market in the last decade.
France launched the Chad Stahelski-directed pic at No. 1 with $543K from 557 screens. Social unrest is plaguing the country with protests in major cities, but despite this, the start was 35% ahead of JW3. Chapter 4 has the best critical and audience scores of the series on AlloCiné.
In Taiwan, JW4 was No. 1 with an estimated $418K, 17% above. JW3 and 273% over last weekend’s opener Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Australia on Thursday bowed to $681K on 259 screens ($1M when including Wednesday’s previews). The opening day repped 66% of the entire box office and was 56% ahead of JW3. The launch day was Studiocanal’s biggest since Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and the best for any non-studio title since Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
Rounding out the top starts, New Zealand has grossed $140K through Thursday, 36% above JW3; Sweden ($100K) and Finland ($74K) both opened JW4 at No. 1 on Wednesday. The Sweden launch was 105% ahead of JW3 while Finland was on par with that movie.
The UK and Spain notably open today. Typically, the top markets for the franchise have been a mix of the UK, Germany, Mexico, Australia and Korea – the latter opening in April along with the Middle East. Japan goes in the fall.
More updates to come.