As an action franchise, John Wick has managed to have a lot of staying power over the course of its four installments. With its blockbuster success with each installment, it was expected that the spin-off from the film’s third installment, Ballerina, would be a similar trailblazer at the box office.
However, the film failed even to outgross one of Disney’s most horrible offerings this summer, which has been endlessly criticized by fans and critics alike.
Despite being a fresh release, the film opened below expectations, grossing a meager $25 million domestically. At the same time, Lilo & Stitch, which fans have widely reviled for its horrible changes to the story, managed to sit on top of the box office for the third consecutive week, with its $32.5 million payout.
Multiple factors contributed to Lilo & Stitch‘s success
To begin with, despite being tied to a franchise as big as John Wick, Ballerina was an R-rated offering, which is known to earn less money than family-friendly films. While films like Joker and Deadpool have set the precedent for good R-rated franchise films doing well, they also carry reputations that preceded the IPs they were catering to.
Ballerina also failed to be as tightly plotted as the John Wick films, given that the film had several scenes (such as attacking Eve at the Continental) that would have had major consequences for the trespassing party (they aren’t in the movie). The John Wick films have a very solid mythology, adding to the neo-noir action aesthetic the franchise has going for itself.
However, Ballerina simply fails to mimic that success, even if it is stylistically reminiscent of both. Fans have speculated why the film has been so disappointing, and the box office numbers have just reinforced those ideas.
Fans have speculated that there are other reasons why the film was at a horrible disadvantage. After Chapter 4, the John Wick franchise feels essentially complete, making the Ballerina feel more like an afterthought than something the studios were genuinely excited to put out.
Further, as reported by Variety, Lilo & Stitch has been playing in about 4185 venues, while Ballerina has had the luck of opening in significantly fewer, about 3409 venues. Even the presence of an A-list star like Ana de Armas hasn’t been able to get the film to the point where the creatives behind it expected it to be.
Despite all the backlash, Lilo & Stitch has been ruling the box office
There are a slew of things that have been getting on people’s nerves about the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch. To begin with, fan-favorite character Captain Gantu is nowhere to be seen. Jamba and Pleakley have also been turned into humans (owing to apparently terrible CGI), and the character of Cobra Bubbles, a former CIA agent turned social service worker, is now split into two characters.
Further, the end of the film, where Nani chooses college over taking care of her sister, does not fit with the original film.
However, despite these issues that have been very objectionable to fans, Lilo & Stitch is headed towards a cool $800 million payday, with trades and industry insiders speculating that it might even reach a billion. That would make it the fourth Disney live-action film to join the billion-dollar club, right behind The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.
Lilo & Stitch and Ballerina are currently in theatres.
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