A franchise like “John Wick” has seen each entry make more than the last, with this year’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” taking in $426 million worldwide and pushing the franchise past the $1 billion mark. But what we’re talking about here is consistency. These “Equalizer” movies, across nearly a decade, have had a consistent audience that has shown up each time Washington suited up as Robert McCall. Case in point: The worldwide total for “The Equalizer” was $192.9 million, while the sequel finished its run with $190.3 million. With the opening weekend numbers, the third installment figures to finish in the same ballpark. That’s consistency, folks.
Luckily, Sony Pictures has managed to keep the budgets similar as well. The first film cost $55 million to produce, while both the second and third installments cost a reported $70 million. It’s incredibly rare to see numbers this homogenous across the board. It’s impressive and speaks volumes about Washington’s standing with moviegoers. People absolutely love to see him kicking ass. The prevailing wisdom is that this movie will end this iteration of the franchise, though Fuqua seems open to returning if Washington is as well.
Money talks, and Sony has made money every time one of these movies hit theaters. What’s particularly remarkable this time around is that CBS has had an “Equalizer” TV show on the air for several years starring Queen Latifah. The fact that audiences resoundingly said they still wanted to see this specific iteration of the franchise suggests that if Sony can find a way to make a fourth movie, you can bet your ass they will do precisely that. Consistent winners are tough to find in this business, and this is as steady as it gets.
“The Equalizer 3” is in theaters now.