There’s a decent argument that no modern action franchise owes more to the international marketplace thanJohn Wick. The 2014 original was famously passed over by distributors who saw a modestly budgeted revenge picture from two first-time directors and a star coming off a cold streak. It grossed a tidy $86 million worldwide and built its empire from there, with each sequel roughly doubling the last until Chapter 4 topped $440 million. And yet through all of that, the series was completely invisible in the single biggest moviegoing territory on earth.

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