In Hollywood, there are two types of films: (1) films that look like they will obviously be big hits and (2) films that don't like they'll be big hits. John Wick movies sit in the middle as their small fan base raves about it while everyone else either debates in their own minds on whether it's worth seeing it in theaters or doesn't care about it flat out.

According to The Numbers, every new John Wick movie that gets released generates more revenue than the previous movie. This is evident in the chart above, which is from The Numbers. While many of the big film franchise we know of today saw their third or fourth film of the series generate lower box office revenues than their predecessor, I don't see that happening with John Wick: Chapter 4.

It's important to note that the John Wick franchise is known for intense and innovative action sequences that are very different from traditional Hollywood-style action movies. The fight scenes are choreographed to be realistic and visceral, with a focus on hand-to-hand combat and gunplay. This approach to movie production is why some say that the John Wick movies are raising the standards for martial arts movies.

When it comes to world building, the franchise gives us an assassin underworld with strict rules, outdated technology, and strange currency. The way in which the storytellers introduce the world of John Wick to us is unique. By watching the movies, we find that we are able to understand John Wick's world by seeing how things work rather than being told how things worked. Even if the story is fast-paced, the audience is able to comprehend what's happening on their own. The movies give us minimal details on what's happening, and the amount of detail they give us is enough to have an adequate understanding of what's happening and it gives us enough knowledge to predict what will happen next. Whoever wrote the script knows how to give us the perfect amount of detail we need to remain engaged in the movie while simultaneously creating room in our minds to fill with our imagination.

Outside of the main films of the John Wick franchise, the franchise is already creating a spin-off called Ballerina. John Wick will appear in Ballerina and to John Wick fans, his appearance in the spin-off will encourage them to watch the spin-off. While it is yet to be seen how the spin-off will perform, the fantastic world-building that the script writers have done gives the John Wick series the potential to create a world that rivals the MCU.

For the budget of the films, John Wick films are considered "low budget" films. All of the movies (so far) had a budget of $40 million each. The average film budget is $50 million. Even if the box office sales of the John Wick films aren't as impressive as compared to the films we commonly think of like Frozen or any MCU film, it's expected that the continued high quality aspect of the film will drive higher word-of-mouth marketing and expand the fan base overtime. The Avatar franchise was built on word-of-mouth marketing and as we've seen with the first two films, one of them is #1 in gross box office sales and the other is #4 (fun fact: Avatar 2 was the 3rd highest-grossing film...for a brief moment). For a lower budget film with a franchise that holds immense potential, any movie investor would be highly bullish on the profit potential of their future films. Since Lionsgate $LGF.A makes the John Wick films, looking at Lionsgate's portfolio, it wouldn't be surprising if the studio sees most of its future growth come from the John Wick franchise.

It will be exciting to see how the John Wick franchise looks with all of its spin-offs. If it does end up creating a world that rivals the MCU, we can look back at this moment and say that the John Wick franchise in 2023 looked like the MCU before $DIS acquired it.

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