‘John Wick 4’ Moves Away From ‘Matrix 4,’ Avoiding The Great Keanu Reeves Box Office Showdown Of Summer 2021

Alas, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick: Chapter 4 and Keanu Reeves’ The Matrix 4 are no longer scheduled to open on the same day.

Lionsgate dropped a ridiculous number of new release dates yesterday. Since they did this while I was on extended “dad duty,” consider this a “yesterday’s news today” post. Yes, Antebellum is now slated for August 21, 2020, just a week after Wonder Woman 1984. And yes, as feared, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has been moved from August 28, 2020 to August 21, 2020. Meanwhile, Lionsgate lacked the courage to move Spiral: From the Book of Saw to October 30, 2020 and will instead schedule it for May 21, 2021 instead. To be fair, they placed Deon Taylor’s new thriller Fatale (starring Michael Ealy and Hillary Swank) into that Halloween weekend, so that’s a relative win. Alas, since Spiral is now slated for next May, John Wick: Chapter 4 has been moved to May 27, 2022.

The bad news is we now have to wait an additional year for the next John Wick installment. The good news is that, presuming it too is not delayed from the May 21, 2021 slot, Warner Bros.’ The Matrix 4 is no longer playing chicken with Lionsgate’s John Wick 4. Yes, Warner Bros. dropped the Lana Wachowki-directed sequel into the same pre-Memorial Day weekend frame already occupied by John Wick 4. It made sense for both franchises. The Matrix Reloaded broke records in 2003 with a $91 million Fri-Sun/$134 million Thurs-Sun debut in that prime release date. John Wick: Chapter 3 opened with $56 million last May in the same frame before legging out to $171 million domestic. Needless to say, we weren’t actually going to get two prime Keanu Reeves “part fours” opening on the same day.

The notion of The Matrix 4 and John Wick 4 opening on the same day was about as likely as Batman v Superman opening concurrently with Captain America: Civil War in May of 2016. And since The Matrix 4 was in the middle of production when the coronavirus pandemic caused and industry-wide production shutdown, while John Wick 4 was (at best) in early development, the sci-fi franchise was always going to open before the action franchise. Of course, it’s always possible that Warner Bros. will have to delay The Matrix 4 and move that big-budget sequel to May 27, 2022 as well. Or, maybe Matrix 4 will stick to its summer 2021 slot while Orion moves Bill and Ted Face the Music to May 21, 2021. Okay, now I’m just being annoying just to entertain myself.

I will note that Lionsgate’s big release date shuffle sadly leaves Aneesh Chaganty’s Run undated, which is bad news for folks eagerly awaiting the next movie from the guy who directed the dynamite Searching, but c’est la vie. Heck, at this rate of delay and rescheduling (bye bye The Batman and Spider-Man 3), The Matrix 4 may end up being one of the very biggest movies of the summer by default, alongside Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Illumination’s Minions 2 and (if it stays the course) Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion. But the great Keanu Reeves vs. Keanu Reeves showdown is not to be, to the extent that it ever was. We’re going to have to wait until 2022 until the next John Wick movie. Let’s hope we still get a Matrix movie next year.