John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski admits his hopes for the hard-hitting action thriller franchise were nearly shot down at the start after receiving underwhelming feedback for the titular 2014 film before its eventual debut.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Stahelski recalled a tough test screening for John Wick, which included family and friends in the audience. The screening yielded little applause and tepid responses from the audience, leaving Stahelski feeling awkward and fearing the worst for the movie. However, a subsequent conversation with lead actor Keanu Reeves gave him the confidence to run with the final product rather than make changes.
“We had done our first test screening, friends and family kind of thing, and there wasn’t a lot of applause. People were like, ‘Yeah… good job guys,’ and they scooted out, and we’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re done,'” Stahelski said. “It wasn’t until we’re like, ‘You know what, we’re just gonna lean in.’ We had a come to God moment with Keanu and we’re like, ‘We’re not changing this. We’re gonna own it. We’re gonna do our headshots. We’re gonna do our wacky choreography. We’re gonna do what we wanted and what we saw. We’re not gonna get nervous’ so we finished it as best we could.”
When John Wick premiered in 2014, Stahelski, Reeves and producer David Leitch snuck into a theater to see the audience’s reactions upon its debut. The reactions were unheard of for the trio but assured them that John Wick found favor with moviegoers. The director explained, “Keanu, myself, and Dave snuck in. We did the midnight show. Right after the first action sequence, which is late in the movie. It’s an odd movie. There’s no action for 40 minutes and then the crowd went mental, and we’re like, ‘Is everybody stoned?’ We didn’t know what was going on. We had never had that kind of reaction and that was the first time we knew that we had something cool that I’d want to go see. There’s nothing like seeing it with a real audience, not just the Hollywood crowd.”
The test screening reaction somewhat mirrored the overall feeling about John Wick heading into its premiere as it wasn’t expected to be a box-office hit. However, John Wick exceeded expectations, earning $86 million worldwide on a $30 million budget. Additionally, the film attracted an 86% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been retrospectively viewed as one of the most enticing action movies ever made and is seen as a trendsetter for the action genre.
John Wick Has Only Grown More Popular
Stahelski has seen the John Wick film series grow significantly with each installment, with Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 – Parabellum also becoming critical successes while earning over $174 million and $327 million respectively. Stahelski nearly ended the franchise with Chapter 3 – Parabellum but felt compelled to make Chapter 4 after feeling the ending didn’t meet fan expectations. It turned out to be a wise decision as Chapter 4 is the most critically and commercially successful franchise title, with a 94% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and over $432 million made worldwide.
Lionsgate announced the development of Chapter 5 this past May, though Stahelski remains unsure if it will happen. Meanwhile, Stahelski plans to release a director’s cut of Chapter 4 at some point.
All four John Wick movies will arrive via Blu-ray and DVD on Oct. 17.
Source: Happy Sad Confused via YouTube