The apolitical John Wick 4 blistered the woke Shazam! Fury of the Gods at the box office. The results aren’t even close. Coming from John Wick, this was a headshot, a kill shot, a brutalization, a ravaging, and another piece of incontrovertible proof that going woke means going broke. It also proves that people are still very eager to go to the movies—you know, if the movies aren’t full of off-putting political rhetoric and adult sexuality.
Granted, I haven’t seen John Wick 4 yet. Still, the first three had no interest in doing anything other than entertaining and furthering universal themes about loyalty, marriage, and what it means for a man to honor a code. Nevertheless, plenty of people I trust have seen John Wick 4 and say there is nothing political about part four. The only agenda from star Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski is to knock our socks off with one gonzo action scene after another.
Result?
John Wick 4, which is R-rated and almost three hours long, opened to a franchise-best of $73 million domestically and $138 million worldwide.
Yes, in a single weekend, the $100 million-budgeted John Wick 4 grossed more money ($73 million) than the $125 million-budgeted Shazam! Fury of the Gods did over ten days and two weekends ($46 million).
While Shazam 2’s creators were running around bragging about how gay the sequel is, the people behind John Wick 4 bragged about how freakin’ cool their movie is. And guess what? People believed both camps and the box office results proved it. Moviegoers had no desire to be exposed to homosexuality in a comic book movie and certainly no desire to expose their kids to it. On the other hand, the audience goodwill the John Wick franchise has built up over the last nine years paid off and then some. We trust these guys not to insult, demean, lecture, and shame us. We trust these guys to deliver their art through theme and character. We also trust them to levitate us in our seats with all the awesomeness that is John Wick.
Meanwhile, Shazam 2 didn’t just go kersplat over its opening weekend; it collapsed to third place in its second weekend. With a 69 percent drop, Shazam 2 took in just $9.7 million. This plummet allowed Creed III to jump into second place with a fourth-week drop of just 32 percent, adding another $10.4 million to its domestic take for a stunning total of $141 million.
Gee, Creed and John Wick, two franchises about masculine men taking care of business and doing what men do, are actually making money.
Weird, eh?
The news for the groomers at Disney/Marvel continues to sour. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is running out of gas with a pathetic (for a Marvel movie) $210 million domestic gross and an even more pathetic $467 million worldwide gross. The first Ant-Man grossed $520 million worldwide. The second one grossed $623 million. Ant-Man 3 cost $200 million to produce and probably just as much to promote. This sucker is going to lose a ton of money. What did Marvel expect? Instead of wowing us with great stories, Marvel is instead lecturing and insulting us. No one wants to watch two hairy guys kiss in a comic book movie. Additionally, now that Marvel’s parent company (Disney) has become a danger to small kids with its open grooming, the goodwill factor involving all things Disney is sailing right off a cliff.
Oh, and guess who Marvel built its new phase around? This guy. As you all know, I believe—even in the court of public opinion—in the presumption of innocence. But the Woke Nazis at Disney do not (see: Depp, Johnny). So how the groomers at Disney handle this scandal will be very interesting.
In a sane world, Jonathan Majors would be allowed to continue with his career. Only a court of law could determine his guilt or innocence. But thanks to fascists like those who run Disney, we no longer live in a sane world.
Suck on that, Bob Iger.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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