Hollywood seems to be running out of new ideas, which could be a big reason why its $200 million movies are tanking. From various Marvel and DC projects to prestige films like Killers of the Flower Moon, formerly sure things have been emerging as duds these days. But as the original John Wick movie hits its 10th anniversary this week, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how Hollywood failed to recognize the way one hitman’s homicidal rampage to avenge his dead dog actually wrote the new playbook on how to build original movie franchises in this IP-era of Hollywood.
Since the Baba Yaga’s debut in 2014, there have been a ton of clones (Monkey Man, Sisu, Nobody, Violent Night, and even In a Valley of Violence, which is about Ethan Hawke getting revenge after his dog is murdered—but in the Old West). Hollywood has no problem cloning successes, but it never quite figured out what specifically made John Wick such a worthy investment. If it did, we’d be drowning in lower-budget original IP today.
John Wick’s producer, Basil Iwanyk, spelled out the secret of the franchise’s success in the book They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, saying: “I was in the market for action movies. Action movies you could make for $25 million plus or minus five.
It’s the most obvious thing in the world, but nobody seems to understand that. If you hit the number right, which is not hard to do, your downside’s protected, but you still have a tremendous.
