John Wick: Chapter 4, the most recent smash-hit installment in Keanu Reeves’ gloriously brutal action franchise, is making a surprise, late-game run at the theatrical box office — in China.
The Lionsgate blockbuster has secured permission to launch in theaters in the country on March 14, two years after its original worldwide release in 2023. Sources close to the film say no cuts or changes were made to the R-rated movie to win approval from Beijing’s highly censorious film regulators.
The release of violent R-rated content from overseas in China is considered rare. None of the previous entries in the John Wick franchise have managed to make their way to Chinese movie screens. Disney and Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine opened theatrically in China last year, but only after some cuts were made to the movie’s violence and explicit dialog (the first Deadpool was blocked by censors and the second was cut heavily and released late as a PG-13 version).
The boundary-pushing on-again, off-again Chinese distributor Huahua Media is handling the local marketing and release of John Wick 4.
John Wick 4 is already the highest-grossing title in the Lionsgate franchise, having earned just over $440 million worldwide, including $187 million domestically.
Produced by Thunder Road Films and 87Eleven Entertainment, the sequel was promoted as the likely final chapter in the John Wick saga, which began with the unapologetically B-movie-styled mayhem of the first John Wick in 2014. The story began with a simple premise: A retired hitman is drawn into a life of relentless violence after his dog is murdered by masked intruders. But the story has since expanded into an ongoing saga about the Continental, an underground world of assassins.
Directed by Chad Stahelski, John Wick 4 is jam-packed with the usual mayhem, violence, balletic physicality and morbid humor that have come to define the action franchise. The cast also features Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick, who died in 2023.
A spinoff film set before the events of Chapter 4 titled Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and featuring Reeves in a cameo, is set for North American release on June 6.