Joe Drake: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Hollywood swore off the booming and lucrative box office territory, with the first studios, Disney and Warner Bros, respectively pulling their big movies out of the country, Turning Red and The Batman.

Joe Drake told Deadline after the stellar result.His optimistic remarks come despite a clear-cut ending for the title character in the fourth film.“There’s a lot of different things that we can do,” Drake said. “I’ve seen this movie five times in the last week.”Drake and Lionsgate were surely moved by the franchise-record box office take of $137.5 million worldwide ($73 million domestic) its first weekend, and its 95% score on RottenTomatoes — another high.The Post awarded “John Wick: Chapter 4” 3.5 stars, calling it “100-miles-an-hour” and “a beautiful sight to behold.”In the film, assassin Wick darts around the world — New York, Berlin, Paris, Osaka — piling up bodies to finally free himself from the chains of the powerful crime syndicate the High Table.

Keanu Reeves landed another hit at the box office with "John Wick: Chapter 4." Studio estimates revealed the neo-noir thriller earned $73.5 million, a franchise-best for the saga about a hitman on a vengeful quest. In addition to its domestic haul, the film brought in another $64 million internationally for a global tally of $137.5 million at the box office. "John Wick" first premiered in 2014, and earned $14 million on its opening weekend.

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Chair Joe Drake had much to celebrate this morning as the studio reaped a record global and domestic box office debut for the John Wick franchise with John Wick: Chapter 4 making $137.5M WW and $73.5M. The fourthquel was the best received John Wick of all-time with audiences (A CinemaScore) and critics (95% certified fresh). The movie is arguably the second best global opening for Reeves after The Matrix Revolution’s $201.4M.

Joe Drake has inked a new long-term employment agreement with Lionsgate as their Motion Picture Group Chair.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Longtime film executive Joe Drake has extended his contract as Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group chair. The multi-year deal will unfold as Lionsgate debuts a slew of sequels and spinoffs in theaters, including “John Wick: Chatper Four,” the “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” “Now You See Me 3,” “Expendables 4,” and the remake of “Dirty Dancing.” “Joe and his team continue to execute our core mission of creating great intellectual properties with a strong slate of tentpole films ready for launch beginning with ‘John Wick: Chapter Four,'” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “He is an entrepreneur with strong talent relationships and a firm grasp of the global theatrical marketplace, and he will continue to be a great partner in helping us move the company forward.”

EXCLUSIVE: We hear that STX and Lionsgate are down the road on a new strategic deal that will see the latter distributing and marketing the former’s upcoming theatrical releases. STX’s upcoming slate includes such titles as Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Greenland: Migration, and Neil Burger’s The Marsh King’s Daughter starring Daisy Ridley, Garrett Hedlund and Ben Mendelsohn, among movies.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAdam Fogelson has been named vice chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, the studio announced Monday.He joins the studio from STX Entertainment, where he was in charge of the struggling company’s motion picture group. At STX, Fogelson launched the successful “Bad Moms” franchise, as well as the critical and commercial hit “Hustlers.” Other Fogelson-backed movies include “Molly’s Game,” which picked up an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay, as well as bombs such as “The Happytime Murders.” STX was originally intended to make mid-budget comedies, thrillers and other genres that studios had abandoned in favor of franchises and comic book fare, but the results were a mixed bag and streaming services made many of the same kind of films that the studio was attempting to make into theatrical propositions.

EXCLUSIVE: Producer Todd Lieberman has formed Hidden Pictures, and tapped Alex Young for the president post. Formed to generate film and TV projects, Hidden Pictures has entered a strategic film partnership with Lionsgate. Hidden Pictures has gotten off the ground with a film rights deal in competition for the Freida McFadden bestselling novel The Housemaid.

EXCLUSIVE:  Deadline has learned that Marisa Liston and David Edwards, Lionsgate’s president and executive vice president of theatrical marketing, will be stepping away from their posts. A new search is promptly underway by Lionsgate for a new head of marketing.

Keanu Reeves hits the stage at Lionsgate’s CinemaCon 2022 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Thursday (April 28).

John Wick: Chapter 4 doesn’t hit theaters until March 24, but it didn’t stop the pic’s leading man Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski from giving exhibitors at Caesars Palace Colosseum Theatre an early look.

EXCLUSIVE:  Lionsgate has renewed its first-look film deal with 3Pas Studios, the production company run by producer Ben Odell and bilingual star Eugenio Derbez, Deadline has learned.

The Graham King produced Michael Jackson biopic project, which is being made with the blessing of the pop legend’s estate, is seeing its worldwide distribution rights snapped up by Lionsgate.

Joe Drake, the chairman of Lionsgate motion picture group, is opening up with a new update on the upcoming prequel movie for The Hunger Games.