Assassin flicks are making a killing at the box office
Studios hone in on hitman films, which delight both fans and beancounters
The hits just keeping rolling along at the movie box office. Literal, assassin-style hits.
Keanu Reeves kicked off a killer-filled 2017 in January as a retired assassin pulled back into the shadowy, deadly world in John Wick: Chapter 2. This weekend, Samuel L. Jackson plays a hired gun in need of a top protection specialist (Ryan Reynolds) in action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard (opening Friday).
Next up, Dylan O’Brien stars as a revenge-seeking Black Ops trainee scoring off the charts in lethal effectiveness under mentor Michael Keaton in thriller American Assassin (due Sept. 15).
“There have always been assassin-type films and there’s a poetry to it with these ghost-type figures that live off the grid,” says Hitman’s Bodyguard director Patrick Hughes. “There’s something really intriguing about this murky work, people who snuff people out for a living. They are isolated and alone.”
There are killers with political motives: Charlize Theron’s MI6 agent in Atomic Blonde is still kicking in theaters. Jennifer Lawrence will step forward as a Russian dancer forced to be a spy assassin in Red Sparrow (March 2). Even CPAs have gotten into the deadly game, with Ben Affleck starring as a bookkeeper with a particular set of skills in last October’s The Accountant.
Producer Brian Oliver ( Black Swan) cites the increase in the hitman scripts he’s seeing to the original 2014 John Wick, where Reeves’ character was lured back to the murder industry after thugs killed his dog.
That simple premise set off Wick’s barrage of videogame style screen killings, executed with precision by directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch.
“John Wick reinvigorated the genre with a pretty simple set-up and plot that turned quickly into this stylized revenge movie with those super-well-rehearsed stunts. The audience just strapped in for a thrill-ride,” says Oliver, who is producing his own hitman movie, The Creed of Violence.
An out-of-nowhere hit, John Wick took $89 million on a $20 million budget. Stahelski went on to direct Chapter 2, while Leitch took on Atomic Blonde.
Studios have increased the green lights after seeing the hit potential of R-rated mayhem following Reynolds’ role as the smart-talking mercenary in 2016’s Deadpool ($783 million worldwide).
“Deadpool opened studios’ eyes to the power of rated-R movies that allows these films to go to these darker, violent places,” says Erik Davis, managing editor of the movie ticket website Fandango.com.
There have been notable flops such as Assassin’s Creed. But Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, says hitman movies with mid-range budgets can be profit machines even with the audience-limiting R rating. “If you keep your budgets tight, these movies can make serious profits that go well into strong home video success,” says Bock. “So there’s no end to the killing in sight, that’s the truth.”