The John Wick
franchise has built a reputation as a brutal and bloody action saga, and it looks like its spinoff movie Ballerina
is not about to let down the side with its official MPA rating. The Ana de Armas-led film will take the Wick franchise in a new direction, but it isn’t forgetting its roots – and those teased fights between de Armas and Keanu Reeves are going to be everything fans are hoping for.
According to the MPA’s weekly bulletin, Ballerina has officially been rated R for strong/bloody violence throughout, and language. This puts the film right on the same track as the previous entries in the franchise, and that is the best news that fans could get ahead of the movie’s release on June 6.
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Ana de Armas Explains Why Her ‘Ballerina’ Character is Not Just “the Female John Wick”
The John Wick saga continues this year with ‘Ballerina,’ but Ana de Armas has made sure that her character is not just a female John Wick.
Ballerina will see de Armas playing Eve, an assassin with an agenda to kill all of those responsible for the death of her father. This mission puts her on a collision course with Reeves’ John Wick, who is sent to stop her revenge hunt. The official synopsis says:
“Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Ballerina follows Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) who is beginning her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma.”
Trailers for the movie have teased plenty of blistering action sequences, but it seems that the power of the John Wick name (the movie’s full title is From the World of John Wick: Ballerina) might not be enough to carry the film to the kind of success seen by the later entries in the Wick franchise.
‘Ballerina’s Opening Weekend Could Be a Huge Decline from ‘John Wick 4’
Lionsgate
When making a spinoff, there are never any guarantees that a popular central franchise will deliver some equally popular expansions. That could be the case with Ballerina, as despite the film gaining a lot of attention in the past week, opening weekend projections have estimated a haul of around $35-40 million, almost half of the opening weekend of John Wick: Chapter 4 in 2023.
The fourth installment of the franchise opened to the tune of $73.5 million, a step up from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’s $56.8 million. Ballerina would likely land a place as the third-highest opening of the franchise, coming in just above 2017’s Chapter 2 ($30.4M) and double the original movie’s $14.4 million. Despite the film featuring Keanu Reeves back in the role of Wick – something that fans will be getting to see again in John Wick 5 – it seems that without being an actual John Wick movie, Ballerina is going to have to settle for a middling opening.
However, with a reported $80 million budget, de Armas’ franchise debut doesn’t have to do much to make it into profitable territory – after all, this is not a Mission: Impossible movie. For that reason, when worldwide grosses are counted, it seems that Ballerina will be kicking up enough of a storm to potentially set up even more Wick-adjacent movies in the future.
Source: Deadline/MPA
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