FRIDAY AM UPDATE, after exclusive: Lionsgate is reporting $3.75M for the previews to Thunder Road’s John Wick spinoff Ballerina.
The Rotten Tomatoes audience score stands at 93%, equal to 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4‘s which is best in the Keanu Reeves franchise.
Essentially, the thinking is to comp Ballerina to female solo action movies instead of John Wick movies.
Female solo action movies are a completely different subgenre and don’t always attract the full-on male audience that typically attends an action movie with a male leading star.
Still, Ballerina‘s combined preview cash is higher than the Thursday night of 2017’s John Wick 2 ($2.2M) but far under both 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ($5.9M, ) and 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 ($8.9M, best preview cash in franchise).
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Following the exclusive, Lionsgate reports that the Ballerina previews for Thunder Road’s John Wick spinoff will cost $375 million. Wednesday and Thursday shows are the source of that figure.
John Wick: Chapter 4 from 2023 has the highest audience score in the Keanu Reeves franchise, at 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Compared to earlier solo femme action films Alita: Battle Angel (91 percent, 2019) and Furiosa (88 percent, 2024), Ballerina has a higher audience score.
On Thursday evening, PostTrak’s exits were outstanding, receiving a 79 percent recommendation. That’s the fans again, but it says a lot. As we’ve mentioned previously, the Comscore/Screen Engine polling service gives “definite recommend” a higher weight than the positivity score, which is still very good at 87 percent. Ballerina prancing past $30M should benefit from this. Men made up 61% of the audience for Thursday night’s groundbreaking ballet. Women over 25 who appeared at 29 percent gave it the highest positive scores (90 percent) and the best definite recommend.
The events of John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum are the setting for Ballerina, which centers on Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), an orphan who is starting to train in the Ruska Roma assassin traditions. The Chancellor by Gabriel Bryne killed her father. She is extremely angry and will not tolerate it any longer.
ALSO READ: Ana De Armas Teases “Deeper” With Tom Cruise and Shares What She’s Learned From “Ballerina…”.
“Convo on Ballerina is going well for action fans who are thrilled to see one of their favorite franchises grow in a magnificent way,” according to social media organization RelishMix. Many of the film’s positive feelings stem from the cast, which includes Ana de Armas, who has earned a lot of respect in other roles, and the prospect of Keanu Reeves reprising his role as John Wick. Some comments read, “I’m thrilled to see Ana de Armas in this kind of movie after No Time to Die. I love her.”. She was the best Bond Girl!’ and “I’m glad Keanu will be in the film, even though I didn’t really expect him to!” in addition to “Did I spy Norman Reedus? Between Ian McShane, Keanu, and the one-and-only Lance Reddick.”. Many people express their satisfaction with the film’s direction and the action featured in the trailer, saying things like, “I was wondering if they were going to do a spinoff with the dancers! This looks EPIC!!!” and, “I really hope that this is the start of a trilogy.”. ‘.
Additionally, according to RelishMix, Reedus has the most social media followers of any member of the Ballerina cast with 19.2M, followed by de Armas with 15M, while Reeves is still off the grid for his films.
Disney’s Lilo & Stitch was on the verge of becoming the second film to reach the $300 million mark year-to-date at the domestic box office, as we informed you Thursday night. Oh. after Warner Bros/Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie. With a $5 million Thursday earnings, down 7% from Wednesday, the hybrid/live-action adaptation of the 2002 Disney toon brought in $86.1 million for its second week and $303 million for its overall total. With a third weekend of $35 million, Lilo & Stitch is predicted to rule once more.
READ MORE: The Films That Have Earned Over $1 Billion at the Box Office.
The remaining top five for the week are listed below.
2. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Par) 3,861 theaters, Thursday $2.3M (down -10 percent from Wednesday), Week $38.9M (down -59 percent), and Week 2 total of $134.2M.
3. . Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) $3,809 theaters, Thursday $1.2M (-10 percent), Week $26.7M, Week 1.
4. . Bloodlines (NL) Final Destination, 3,134 theaters, Thursday, $1. Total $117M, Wk 3; M (-11 percent); Wk $16.1M (-48 percent).
5. Come Back (A24) 2,449 theaters, Thursday $675K (-12 percent), Week $10.4M, Week 1.
EXCLUSIVE: According to sources, Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff, is hoping to gross between $3 and $5 million to $4 million in previews. Included in that are the Wednesday fan screenings, which began at 7:00 p.m. m. as well as Thursday performances, which started at 6 p.m. m.
It is hoped that the $80M to $90M Lionsgate production will reach over $30M, which is roughly where recent female solo action films have opened at the box office. For example, Furiosa ($26.3M 3-day last year) and Alita: Battle Angel ($28.5M 3-day in 2019).
The Len Wiseman-directed Thunder Road spinoff is predicted to come in second place to Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, which is expected to earn about $35 million on its third weekend; the film has already surpassed $300 million today.
Ballerina’s further photography was postponed for a year.
The good news about Ballerina is that Thursday night viewers are enjoying the Ana de Armas film, which features a cameo from Keanu Reeves. As of right now, its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 94 percent, which is higher than any John Wick RT popcorn score; in 2023, John Wick: Chapter 4 scored 93 percent. Despite having a 72 percent certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Ballerina’s rating is lower than that of the John Wick films, which received ratings ranging from 86 to 94 percent certified fresh.
Ballerina’s total advance revenue is higher than Alita: Battle Angel’s $2.4M Tuesday night preview revenue and comparable to Furiosa’s $3.5M Thursday preview box office. The idea is basically to compare Ballerina to female solo action films rather than John Wick films. The full-on male audience that usually attends an action film with a male leading star is not always drawn to female solo action films, which are a whole other subgenre.
Ballerina’s total preview money is still more than the Thursday night of John Wick 2 in 2017 ($2.2M), but it is still far less than 2018’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ($5.9M) and 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 ($8.9M, best preview cash in franchise).
Additional updates will be provided as they become available on Friday morning. Our request for comment was not answered by Lionsgate.
