Recently, fans of John Wick were shocked to learn that former Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria saved the film at the 11th hour. When production on the 2014 film was in danger of shutting down, Longoria invested $6 million to keep it afloat. Now that the news has gone public, Longoria is revealing that she still receives checks from the investment, which helped spawn a hugely successful franchise.
Speaking with Business Insider, Longoria revealed that she’s continued receiving checks from John Wick in the 10 years since its release. It was previously revealed that the actress invested $6 million in the film when it was in danger of running out of money, which would’ve shut production down completely. All of this was done within 24 hours of what would’ve been the film’s demise had Longoria not stepped in to help the project. While her deed did save the film, Longoria admits that investing was very new to her. The actress said, “My bankroll was very new, and it was a lot of money, and I was like, ‘So how does it work?’ I had no idea. I would love to say I was an investment genius and I just knew and I calculated risk. No, none of that.”
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Longoria confirmed that she still gets checks from the film, but added that she wished her investment was connected to the sequels because, as the masses know, the John Wick franchise has gone on to gross $1 billion globally across four movies.
“Yes. What I’m pissed about is I wasn’t connected to the rest of them. This was a one-time thing. That was the gamble. But that was my only mistake, not being attached to all of the films.”
John Wick Was Not Expected to Be a Hit
Budgeted at $30 million, 2014’s John Wick wasn’t expected to be a big box-office grosser. In fact, the movie was only a modest hit in theaters, grossing $86 million worldwide. The filmmakers had a hard time securing theatrical distribution ahead of its release because there wasn’t much faith in an action movie helmed by first-time directors, and the fact that Reeves, up to that point, had been in a bit of a box-office slump. When looking back on her decision to invest, Longoria said that it came down to investing in the people making the film, and she believed in what they were doing.
“An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here. And I didn’t even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?’ But something that I’ve learned, looking back, I love investing in people. You can tell me you’re opening a chicken farm, but if you’re fucking passionate about it and you’ve done the work and know the market, I mean, [directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch] did their work. They put in their 10,000 hours as stunt guys and second unit directors; they had seen all the bad movies and knew how to make a good one. It was that. They were undeniably passionate and I knew they were going to make an undeniable product.”
So, Longoria may not be involved in the financial end of the sequels, but without her investment, audiences may not have had this groundbreaking action franchise today. Also, don’t cry for Eva Longoria – she’s doing just fine off the one John Wick movie. When asked how much she has made off the first film, the actress said, “You know, I would have to check. More than double [$6 million], for sure.”
- Release Date
- October 22, 2014