Keanu Reeves is coming off a pretty bad flop in 47 Ronin - which certainly hurt his leading man credibility - but it looks like his latest release could put him back in blockbuster form. Released this past weekend, the new revenge action flick John Wick didn't exactly set any records in its first three days, but it did put on a strong performance compared to some of the other "one man wrecking crew" releases that have come out in 2014.
The box office results from this past weekend are in, and while John Wick wound up coming in second place, falling behind the $20 million take by the horror movie Ouija, it wound up having a strong performance overall, taking in a solid $14.15 million after being shown in 2,589 theaters nationwide. This number is obviously way short of the score that was posted by Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer last month - as the draw of Denzel Washington helped that title break $34 million - but the total was big enough to put it in front of both A Walk Among The Tombstones with Liam Neeson (which made just $12.8 million), and the Kevin C0stner-led 3 Days to Kill (which pulled in $12.2 million). As Box Office Mojo points out, John Wick's total is just short of The Expendables 3's opening take, that film having made $15.9 million in its first three days. Of course, the big difference between the two is that the former cost a hell of a lot less money to make.
More than just Keanu Reeves' potability as a lead, what likely helped John Wick find success is a good amount of both critical and audience buzz. The David Leitch and Chad Stahelski-directed film got a terrific critical response - with 82% of critics having given the movie positive reviews - and CinemaScore has a "B" rating for the movie, which beats out Ouija's "C." This could very well mean that John Wick will have some staying power at the box office. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the film to drop out of the top five.
In the film, Keanu Reeves plays the titular protagonist, an ex-hitman who is brought back out of retirement when a group of gangsters kills his puppy. Beyond its star, the movie has a rather impressive supporting cast, including Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Bridget Moynahan, John Leguizamo and Ian McShane.
While Ouija and John Wick took the two top spots as new releases this weekend, the rest of the top five put up some rather impressive numbers. Though it fell from first to third place in its second week, David Ayer's WWII tank drama Fury only hell 45.2% in its second week and wound up making $13 million. Right behind it and still holding strong in its fourth week was David Fincher's Gone Girl, pulling in $11.1 million for fourth place. Finally, the animated The Book of Life, made $9.8 million in ts second week as it fell from third place to fifth. What did you see this weekend?
