Aug 29, 2023

Expendables 4 Box Office: Long-Range Tracking Hints at a Franchise-Worst Opening Weekend

From Movieweb

Expend4bles could end up with the worst opening weekend of the franchise if the projections hold up.

The fourth installment of the Expendables franchise, Expend4bles, is projected to have a disappointing opening weekend.

Despite lacking real competition in theaters, Expend4bles may struggle to attract audiences due to the absence of many "big names" from previous films in the franchise.

Expend4bles could become the worst box office performer in the franchise's history.

Director Scott Waugh’s upcoming action sequel might be the most expendable of all. Expend4bles is slated to hit theaters on September 22, but the action film’s opening weekend is looking bleak. While a similar genre piece, The Equalizer 3, is forecast to make $35 million during its stint over the Labor Day holiday, Expend4bles is projected to do half of that — at best. That could end up being the worst premiere for the franchise should it come to fruition.

The fourth installment in the Expendables franchise is currently tracking to make an anemic $13 million to $18 million domestically during its opening weekend (per Boxoffice Pro). Even the ninth entry in The Conjuring Universe — a horror film — is predicted to do better business than Expend4bles. Yes, The Nun II should make $30 million when it haunts theaters.

The best domestic opening for the franchise came in 2010 with The Expendables making $34.8 million. However, the first three films did the majority of their business internationally as opposed to in the United States. Overall, The Expendables 2 made the most money with a worldwide total of $315 million. If Expend4bles doesn’t want to go down in history as the worst performer, in terms of opening weekend numbers, it needs to make more than The Expendables 3's $15.9 million — that is currently the worst of the series.

Should the numbers hold, Expend4bles will mark the lowest opening for an Expendables film in the United States. Expend4bles doesn’t have any real competition when it hits theaters either. However, Dumb Money opens head-to-head against the fourth Expendables, and A Haunting in Venice will have just started its run in theaters the week prior. Plus, Expend4bles will need to make as much money as possible during its opening weekend because Saw X will undoubtedly "cut" into its tickets sales when Jigsaw returns on September 29.

Also, the arrival of Sylvester Stallone and his team of machine-gun wielding stars won’t provide as action-packed a cast as in the previous installments. One issue that is arguably hindering the performance of the new film is the absence of many of the “big names” that appeared in the first three films of the franchise.

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t return in the Expend4bles, and he only appeared in the other entries as a favor to Sylvester Stallone. Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren do reprise their roles, but many other big action movie names have fallen to the wayside, whether it be the characters die, or the actors just aren’t involved anymore.

Bruce Willis sadly can’t return for health reasons. And then Chuck Norris, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas — and many more — have disappeared from the cast list over the years.

Expend4bles opens in theaters on September 22 with its depleted roster of Hollywood heavyweights.

17 comments:

  1. Come on, hope friends. Positive thinking. The franchise cannot die. The franchise will not die.

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  2. I'm afraid it will die with this movie or end up as a DTV franchise. Anyhow even if it doesn't die by the time they'll try to make it another one the old guys will be pushing 80, forget it

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    1. An alternative would be to shift the focus from 80's and 90's guys to 2000's guys. The Rock, Keanu Reeves, John Cena, Cavill, Bernthal and others. They are excellent guys to guarantee the future of the franchise. Directors may also include 80s and 90s dudes in cameos to satisfy old fans.

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    2. they will never be able to get Rock, Reeves or Cena anymore after this. Maybe they could back then for EX3 or if EX4 was made right after, but these guys are not affordable for this low budget franchise and will not risk their reputation for this, specially if the likes of Sly and Arnold are no longer in it

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Arnold said he wouldn't be returning for 4, but didn't say anything about a 5 with him in a bigger, more developed role to replace Stallone as the veteran guy. I doubt he would deny it.

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    5. Barney doesn’t die, he gets kidnapped and they have have to rescue him from the large cargo boat seen in the trailer.

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    6. In the trailer, the Expendables' plane is on fire. Only Stallone was in it. So yeah, apparently they're going to capture him after the plane crash. Would that happen after the bar fight?

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  3. I had two similar conversations with two different friends of mine, guys who really liked the first 3 Expendables movies and saw them in cinema, and both conversations went something like this:

    Me: "Hey, there's another Expendables movie coming up, you hear about it?"
    Friend: "Expendables? Ah yeah, really? These were fun back then, who's in it this time?"
    Me: "Well... the rapper 50 cent, and Megan Fox.. (They both don't even know Uwais or Jaa so mentioning them was useless)
    Friend: "wtf, really? That sounds terrible, why would they add them... at least Stallone is in it again right?"
    Me: "I am reading his role is greatly reduced..."
    Friend: "I don't need to see this movie at all.. sounds lame."

    I guess my friends' reactions are pretty much the general reactions of most people who hear about this movie.

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    1. Let's hope buddy. If the action is good, maybe it's worth it and save the franchise. I keep thinking, if this movie project was something bad, an actor like Andy Garcia wouldn't have agreed to do it. He seems to value the quality of a film.

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  4. unfortunately that is the reality. Let's be honest, people who paid to see the first 3 movies are now in their late 40's or 50's.You think they're gonna pay to see 50 Cent!! the younger generation doesn't even know about this franchise and Megan Fox is not a big attraction to them. This movie will tank. I think the $18M opening is even generous here. The only chance to salvage this is Statham but whenever he opens a movie on his own or at least lately it hasn't been a huge success anyway

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  5. So can Expendables 4 succeed because he's in charge?

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  6. Oh man. We better hope the movie succeeds. Man, I've waited so long for this. The franchise cannot die.

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  7. The franchise is already dead, wake up!

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  8. The franchise only dies if they say, "We're not going to make any more Expendables movies." As long as they make movies of them, I will give them my full support. Together in good and bad times.

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  9. No question that I'm also disappointed in the lack of the action stars in the 4th movie. But I look forward to it as a Statham fan and action movies in general.

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