The highly anticipated spinoff, Ballerina, featuring Ana de Armas as a dancer-turned-assassin, opened to disappointing numbers at the box office. The film launched with just $25 million from 3,409 North American theaters, falling short of expectations. Despite its connection to the popular John Wick franchise, Ballerina secured a second-place finish, trailing behind Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, which dominated the box office for the third consecutive weekend with an impressive $32.5 million from 4,185 venues.
The live-action reboot of Lilo & Stitch has now grossed a remarkable $335.8 million domestically and $772 million globally, positioning it to become the first billion-dollar release of the year. In contrast, Ballerina managed to rake in a lackluster $26 million from 82 countries at the international box office, culminating in a global debut of $51 million. Prior to the weekend, Lionsgate had projected a domestic opening of $30 million for Ballerina, but even that figure would have been considered mediocre in light of the film's $90 million production budget.
Lionsgate typically offsets its production costs through international sales, covering about two-thirds of the budget. However, the studio is banking on the potential of Ballerina to be the first in a series of John Wick spinoffs. To successfully build this expanding cinematic universe, Lionsgate needs moviegoers to engage with the franchise, even without the familiar face of Keanu Reeves, who has headlined the main series across four films.
Despite achieving positive audience scores, with a CinemaScore exit poll grade of “A-” and a respectable 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, Ballerina failed to entice a significant portion of the John Wick fanbase to visit local theaters. The studio made an effort to attract Wick enthusiasts by prominently featuring the cumbersome title “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” aiming to clarify the film's connection to the beloved franchise without overstating Reeves' involvement, who appears only briefly.
Analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research commented, “This is a weak opening for an action thriller spinoff. Audiences are enthusiastic about the movie; they just aren’t attending in big numbers.” Given that Ballerina is not a direct sequel to John Wick and introduces a new character, Eve Macarro, it’s not entirely surprising that the opening sales lagged behind the core series. The original John Wick opened to $14 million in 2014, but subsequent films have seen a surge in popularity, with John Wick: Chapter 2 earning $30.4 million, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum launching at $56.8 million, and John Wick: Chapter 4 achieving a series-high of $73.8 million in 2023.
Looking ahead, Lionsgate plans to continue expanding the John Wick cinematic universe with sequels such as John Wick 5, alongside spinoffs featuring Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine and an animated prequel film. The studio’s focus on building this universe will be crucial for its future projects.
In other box office news, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning fell to third place, earning $15 million from 3,496 theaters in its third weekend. The eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s enduring action franchise has accumulated $149 million domestically and $450 million globally, yet it faces challenges due to its extensive $400 million budget.
Meanwhile, Karate Kid: Legends landed in fourth place with $8.7 million in its second weekend, marking a steep 58% drop from its $21 million debut. This sequel, the first new theatrical entry in the franchise in 15 years, has grossed $35 million domestically and $74 million globally, falling short of expectations given its $45 million budget.
Completing the top five, Final Destination: Bloodlines grossed $6.4 million from 2,867 locations in its fourth outing, making it the highest-grossing film in the franchise with $123 million in North America and $257 million worldwide.
In the number six spot, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme collected $6.2 million while expanding to 1,678 venues, bringing its total gross to $6.5 million after just one weekend in limited release. While Anderson's films typically attract a dedicated following, this latest effort received a disappointing “B-” grade from CinemaScore exit polls.
As the summer movie season heats up, overall box office revenues are currently 26% above last year’s figures, although they still lag 27% behind 2019’s performance, according to Comscore. The coming weeks will see the release of several highly anticipated films, including Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon, Sony’s 28 Years Later, Disney’s Pixar adventure Elio, and Brad Pitt’s racing drama F1. With such a lineup, the question remains: will these blockbuster hopefuls drive a post-pandemic record summer at the box office?
As analyst Paul Dergarbedian noted, “This is a momentum-driven business. The hit parade is set to continue every weekend from now until Labor Day weekend.”
