Ballerina Joins the List of 2025's Box Office Bombs

In its second weekend, the $90M spinoff dropped a brutal 65%, pulling in just $9 million. Domestic total? $42 million. Projections say it might limp to $60M tops. For context, that would make it the lowest-grossing Wick film since the original—and that one cost less than half as much to make.

Audiences aren't exactly rejecting it, either. Scores are decent, and fans say the action delivers. But you can feel the hesitation: this is a John Wick movie without John Wick. Keanu's still the engine, and Ana de Armas—while solid—wasn't enough to carry it solo.

Even defenders of the film admit it's not quite essential. One viewer summed it up best:

"Great action and stunts, a lovely lead actress and good-looking cinematography. The plot was as B-grade and threadbare as it gets… but that isn't the main reason to go to see a movie like this."

Fair. Another fan loved the flamethrower vs. flamethrower and flamethrower vs. firehose fights (which, yes, were real and practical). Others praised the nonstop action, especially in 4DX—though one person compared that experience to "a car crash every 5 minutes."

Still, there's a ceiling here. The title didn't help. As one poster bluntly put it:

"Lots of straight guys who liked John Wick aren't going to buy a ticket for something called Ballerina. Argue with the wall, I'm right."

The girlboss debate came roaring in, of course. Some blamed the underperformance on tired stereotypes, others defended Ana and the movie's tone. The conversation quickly devolved into people yelling past each other about Furiosa, Rings of Power, and every female-led action flick of the past five years.

One take tried to cut through the noise: "It's possible to have a female protagonist without the character being a ‘girlboss' Mary Sue... If you hate ideologically charged crap where the guys are doofuses and the woman's a self-insert—so do I. Furiosa doesn't fit that bill at all. And it was a great movie."

But Ballerina? It's not Furiosa. And for all its practical fire fights and fight choreography, it's still a spinoff that never quite justifies itself.

As one post put it: "It's not a bad movie, but it's also not one that makes a compelling case for why it needed to exist."

Lionsgate, meanwhile, is staring down another financial headache. Unless overseas markets pull off a miracle, this one's not making its money back theatrically.

For a franchise that once redefined action on a tight budget, Ballerina might be a warning shot. It's not that audiences are done with Wick—but they might be done with the idea that you can just plug in another assassin and keep printing money.

And no, a Sofia spinoff with Halle Berry probably wouldn't have done better. Although, depending on who you ask, it also wouldn't have made things worse.