Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 20 May 2019
'John Wick 3' dethrones 'Avengers: Endgame' with $57 million

By LINDSEY BAHR its opening weekend. Not
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The only did it far exceed ex-
box office has a new king pectations, it's a franchise
and his name is John Wick. best that nearly doubled
The third installment of the the opening of the second
hyper violent Keanu Reeves film, which itself doubled
franchise has taken the top the opening of the first film
spot at the North Ameri- from 2014.
can box office and ended The audience, in other
the three-week reign of words, is growing exponen-
"Avengers: Endgame." tially for this series about a
Studios on Sunday say talented assassin who nev-
"John Wick: Chapter 3 — er seems to get a break.
Parabellum" has grossed This time, there's a $14 mil-
an estimated $57 million in lion price tag on his head.

This image released by Lionsgate shows Keanu Reeves in a scene from "John Wick: Chapter 3 -
Parabellum."
Associated Press

Men made up the major- and Pikachu, there weren't turned out, 75% of whom
ity (63 of the "John Wick 3" very many moviegoers left were women. It got a poor
opening weekend crowd. over for the less flashy new- B- CinemaScore.
Overall audiences gave comers like "A Dog's Jour- It's a far cry from the days of
the film a rare A+ CinemaS- ney" and "The Sun Is Also a "The Fault in Our Stars'" $48
core, indicating that word- Star." million debut in 2014, and
of-mouth will be strong in "The marketplace was so even the last film based on
subsequent weekends. dominated by 'John Wick,'" a Nicola Yoon novel, "Ev-
According to Comscore's said Paul Dergarabedian, erything, Everything," which
PostTrak audience survey, the senior media analyst for opened to over $11 million
70% said they would "defi- Comscore. "It's tough when in 2017.
nitely recommend" to their one movie over performs "As unpredictable and
friends and 21% said they by this kind of magnitude." fickle as young adults are,
would see it again in the- Amblin Entertainment and so are the performances
aters. Reliance Entertainment's "A of films that target that au-
"This is the best reviewed Dog's Journey" opened in dience," Dergarabedian
film of the series so far," said fourth with an underwhelm- said.
Joe Drake, chairman of the ing $8 million. The Universal- In limited release, Joanna
Lionsgate Motion Picture distributed film is a sequel Hogg's well-reviewed rela-
Group, in a statement. "We to the 2017 hit "A Dog's Pur- tionship drama "The Sou-
believe word-of-mouth will pose." But unlike John Wick, venir" did well with $85,851
continue to drive strong the audience for this sequel from four screens.
business for the film all over was less than half of that for Even with the success of
the world." the first, which opened to "John Wick," the weekend
Internationally "John Wick $18.2 million. But audiences itself was down about 31%
3" earned $35.2 million from who did turn out gave it and the year to date is still
66 territories. an A CinemaScore, which down around 9%, but, Der-
"Avengers: Endgame" slid could point toward long- garabedian said that this is
to second place in its fourth term playability. the calm before the storm.
weekend with $29.4 million. Most disappointing, how- In the next few weekends
Domestically, where the ever, is the young adult theaters will see an influx
film has grossed $711 mil- adaptation "The Sun Is of could-be hits such as
lion, it's now second only to Also a Star" which grossed "Rocketman," ''Aladdin"
"Star Wars: The Force Awak- only $2.6 million from over and "Godzilla: King of the
ens" ($937 million) and 2,000 screens and landed Monsters."
globally, with $2.6 billion, it's in eighth place. Although Estimated ticket sales for Fri-
still second to "Avatar" ($2.8 modestly budgeted at a day through Sunday at U.S.
billion). reported $9 million, and and Canadian theaters,
In its second weekend, featuring popular televi- according to Comscore.
"Pokémon Detective Pi- sion actors such as "River- Where available, the latest
kachu" also continued to dale's" Charles Melton and international numbers for
do well, placing third with "grown-ish's" Yara Shahidi, Friday through Sunday are
$24.8 million. But with the the Warner Bros.-released also included. Final domes-
high-performing trifecta of film failed to connect even tic figures will be released
John Wick, the Avengers with the audiences who Monday.q