“Ballerina” couldn’t twirl its way to the top of the box office charts. The “John Wick” spinoff, starring Ana de Armas as a dancer-turned-assassin, launched slightly behind expectations with $25 million from 3,409 North American theaters.
The R-rated film opened in second place behind Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch,” which claimed the No. 1 spot for the third consecutive weekend with $32.5 million from 4,185 venues. The live-action reboot has generated $335.8 million domestically and $772 million globally and should soon become the year’s first billion-dollar release.
“Ballerina” earned a lackluster $26 million from 82 countries at the international box office for a global start of $51 million. Heading into the weekend, Lionsgate projected a domestic debut of $30 million for “Ballerina.” But even that would have been middling since the film cost $90 million to produce. Lionsgate typically covers two-thirds of its production budgets with international sales, which helps offset underperforming theatrical titles. However, the studio hopes that “Ballerina” will be the first of many “John Wick” spinoffs — and in order to justify the burgeoning, sprawling cinematic universe, Lionsgate needs moviegoers to care about the series without Keanu Reeves, who has played the professional hitman in four films, as the main draw.
Despite positive audience scores (the film earned an “A-” grade on CinemaScore exit polls) and decent reviews (75% on Rotten Tomatoes), “Ballerina” didn’t inspire much of the “John Wick” fanbase to get off the couch and visit their local multiplex. The studio certainly tried to excite “Wick-heads,” adding the cumbersome title of “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” to spell out the connection to the franchise without overselling the involvement of Reeves. Indeed, Reeves only briefly appears in “Ballerina,” with top billing belonging to de Armas, the star of “No Time to Die” and “Knives Out.”
“This is a weak opening for an action thriller spin-off,” says analyst David A. Gross of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Audiences are enthusiastic about the movie, they just aren’t attending in big numbers.”
Since “Ballerina” isn’t a direct “John Wick” sequel and the de Armas character Eve Macarro is entirely new to the franchise, it’s not unexpected that inaugural sales were far behind the core series. After the original 2014’s “John Wick” opened to $14 million, the franchise has soared in popularity with 2017’s “John Wick: Chapter 2” bowing to $30.4 million, 2019’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” launching with $56.8 million and 2023’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” earning a series-best $73.8 million. The studio plans to keep expanding the cinematic universe with “John Wick 5,” as well as a spinoff revolving around Donnie Yen’s blind assassin Caine and an animated prequel film.
Elsewhere on box office charts, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” dropped to No. 3 with $15 million from 3,496 theaters in its third weekend of release. The eighth entry in Tom Cruise’s 29-year-old action franchise has amassed $149 million in North America and $450 million worldwide to date. Against its massive $400 million budget, “The Final Reckoning” might not have the strength to climb out of the red in its theatrical run.
In fourth place, “Karate Kid: Legends” added $8.7 million in its second weekend of release, a steep 58% tumble from its $21 million debut. The action sequel, which marks the franchise’s first new theatrical installment in 15 years, has grossed $35 million domestically and $74 million globally to date. It’s a so-so result for the $45 million budgeted film, which isn’t living up to prior “Karate Kid” installments in terms of box office coinage.
“Final Destination: Bloodlines” rounded out the top five with $6.4 million from 2,867 locations in its fourth outing. The sixth installment in Warner Bros. and New Line’s long-running horror property, in which people die in increasingly insane incidents, is a huge hit. It’s officially the highest-grossing of the series with $123 million in North America and $257 million worldwide.
At the No. 6 spot, Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” collected a solid $6.2 million while expanding to 1,678 venues. After one weekend in limited release, the film has grossed $6.5 million. Anderson, the filmmaker of “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” is a favorite among cinephiles, though moviegoers were less receptive to “The Phoenician Scheme.” Ticket buyers — 56% of whom were male, while 59% were between 18 and 34 — saddled the film with a lousy “B-” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Focus Features is releasing the espionage thriller, which stars Benicio del Toro, newcomer Mia Threapleton, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch.
After this weekend, overall box office revenues are 26% above last year while still lagging 27% behind 2019, according to Comscore. Over the next few weeks, 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” will round out the month of June. That’s before Universal’s “Jurassic World,” the Warner Bros. and DC epic “Superman,” Paramount’s “Smurfs” and Disney and Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” land in July.
Will those blockbuster-hopefuls be enough to power a (post-pandemic) summer box office record? Only once since COVID, during the boom times of 2023’s “Barbenheimer,” has the season accounted for $4 billion (which used to be standard for the four-month stretch).
“This summer’s killer slate is going to put the $4 billion milestone clearly in its sights,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “This is a momentum-driven business. The hit parade is set to continue every weekend from now until Labor Day weekend.”
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