Lionsgate’s crown jewel franchise, John Wick, branched out this week with its first theatrical spin-off. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina debuted to an underwhelming response at the domestic box office, after a tumultuous production that reportedly saw much of it being retooled. Ballerina is set between the events of the blockbuster third and fourth films in the main franchise, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, and John Wick: Chapter 4, and features Keanu Reeves in an extended cameo. The movie is headlined by Ana de Armas and directed by Len Wiseman, who hasn’t made a feature film in over a decade. Wiseman, best known for the Underworld trilogy and Live Free or Die Hard, reportedly turned in a dissatisfying cut to the studio, which prompted the suits to bring in John Wick overlord Chad Stahelski to fine-tune the movie and add more action scenes. The final film opened to mostly positive reviews — it holds a “certified fresh” 76% Rotten Tomatoes score — and was embraced by the franchise’s hardcore fans. It holds a stellar 94% audience score on the aggregator website, in addition to an A- CinemaScore from opening day crowds. In his review, Collider’s Ross Bonaime praised the film’s “over-the-top fights and ludicrously fun action scenarios,” and called it a worthy entry in the John Wick canon. Produced on a budget that reportedly escalated to the $90 million mark, Ballerina earned around $25 million in its domestic box office debut. This is around $10 million shy of projections, which is unusual, considering the positive response that the movie earned. Its debut positions it in the same range as last year’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which underperformed terribly but cost significantly more to put together. Ballerina added another $26 million from over 80 overseas markets, for a cumulative global haul of $51 million.
Lionsgate Just Can’t Catch a Break at the Box Office

In one weekend alone, Ballerina has generated more at the global box office than the $44 million that Jason Statham’s Crank did in its entire run. The movie comes a couple of years after John Wick 4 seemingly concluded the main franchise with a stunning $450 million global haul. But conversations about a fifth installment are heating up. It remains to be seen if Ballerina’s unremarkable box office performance so far will impact Lionsgate’s larger plans for the franchise, which needs to expand beyond the central character if it wants to continue. The studio had a terrible run last year, struggling to pass the $200 million mark in combined revenue. You can watch Ballerina in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.