The John Wick fever is quite high thanks to John Wick: Chapter 4 doing wonders at the box office with its gripping storyline and action sequences for days! Keanu Reeves once again proved why he is a force to reckon with, especially since the man did ninety percent of the film’s stunts himself. Given the fact that John Wick 4 had some of the most insane action sequences, Keanu Reeves sure deserves a standing ovation!
Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Actions speak louder than words?’ Well, this fits perfectly when it comes to Keanu Reeves in the John Wick franchise. As it turns out, Keanu Reeves only had a small number of dialogues to his name. Despite being the lead character of the film, director Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves together cut down about fifty percent of John Wick’s dialogues.
Keanu Reeves Initially Had More Dialogues in John Wick 4
It goes without saying that dialogues play a huge role when it comes to making a character memorable. However, that was not the case with Keanu Reeves’ John Wick. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Reeves speaks only a total of 380 words, that is 103 lines of dialogue, in a film that spreads across a runtime of 169 minutes. This means that in almost three hours, John Wick spoke just 380 words! Not a man of many words, is he?
The Wall Street Journal writes,
“In the first installment, clocking in at 101 minutes, Mr. Reeves said a total of 484 words. With a run time of 169 minutes, the fourth movie pushes three hours but features just 380 words by Wick. About 10% of them are featured in the movie’s trailer, which makes the hero seem almost chatty; Wick says more in that 2.5 minute clip than he does in the first 25 minutes of the movie itself.”
Chad Stahelksi stated that Reeves had “stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character in the initial script.” During the exchange between John Wick and Marquis de Gramont, John Wick was supposed to have about 50% of the dialogue which was cut down by a large chunk. Screenwriter Michael Finch told The Wall Street Journal that “it is a shock when you work with him how dedicated he is to not speaking.”
Well, at the end of the day, John Wick does not need to speak to say what’s on his mind. His actions are more than enough!
Also Read: Original John Wick Script Was So Vanilla Keanu Reeves Only Killed 3 People, Not 77
How is John Wick: Chapter 4 Doing at the Box Office
Things are going nowhere but to the top for the John Wick franchise and the latest installment is living proof. Achieving the franchise’s best on its opening day, John Wick 4 made a whopping $73.5 million domestically. Compared to its predecessors, John Wick made $14 million, John Wick 2 made $30.4 million, and John Wick 3 brought in a total of $56.8 million. Just like we said, the franchise aged exactly like fine wine!
John Wick 4 grossed a $64 million opening internationally bringing the grand total to $137.5 million! Since John Wick 4 was made on a budget of over 100 million dollars, it’s safe to say the film is doing more than just fine at the box office.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is running in theatres now.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
