“The Expendables 4,” an action-thriller starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, misfired in its box office debut, tumbling to a franchise-low $8.3 million.
It landed in ever-so-slightly second place behind “The Nun II,” which collected $8.4 million in its third weekend. It’s possible the order could flip by the time the final tally is revealed on Monday. Even so, this weekend’s collective ticket sales resulted in the lowest-grossing box office frame of the year as not a single film managed to clear $10 million.
Heading into the weekend, the Lionsgate and Millenium “Expendables” fourquel was expected to open to $15 million from 3,400 North American theaters. Instead, audiences felt the film was, well, expendable. Without encouraging reviews or positive word-of-mouth, opening weekend figures weren’t anywhere close to its series predecessors of 2014’s “Expendables 3” with $15.8 million, 2012 sequel with $28.5 million and 2010’s original “Expendables” with $34.8 million.
“The last two ‘Expendables’ have dropped sharply from the previous episodes, and the weekend figure is below average for the genre,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research Critics. “Reviews are poor and audience ratings are dull.”
Though the “Expendables” series has declined in popularity at the domestic box office (the original ended up with $103 million in North America, while the most recent tapped out with a paltry $39 million), these films have been much bigger draws with international audiences. All three installments have earned at least $200 million globally. The fourth installment cost $100 million to produce, roughly the same as its predecessors. Scott Waugh directed “The Expendables 4,” which sees the teflon operatives attempting to stop a terrorist group that threatens to ignite a conflict between Russia and the United States.
“The movie was not cheap to make,” Gross adds. “While ancillary income should be strong, it appears the film will have a hard time getting to profitability after marketing and distribution costs.”
It landed in ever-so-slightly second place behind “The Nun II,” which collected $8.4 million in its third weekend. It’s possible the order could flip by the time the final tally is revealed on Monday. Even so, this weekend’s collective ticket sales resulted in the lowest-grossing box office frame of the year as not a single film managed to clear $10 million.
“The last two ‘Expendables’ have dropped sharply from the previous episodes, and the weekend figure is below average for the genre,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research Critics. “Reviews are poor and audience ratings are dull.”
Though the “Expendables” series has declined in popularity at the domestic box office (the original ended up with $103 million in North America, while the most recent tapped out with a paltry $39 million), these films have been much bigger draws with international audiences. All three installments have earned at least $200 million globally. The fourth installment cost $100 million to produce, roughly the same as its predecessors. Scott Waugh directed “The Expendables 4,” which sees the teflon operatives attempting to stop a terrorist group that threatens to ignite a conflict between Russia and the United States.
“The movie was not cheap to make,” Gross adds. “While ancillary income should be strong, it appears the film will have a hard time getting to profitability after marketing and distribution costs.”
Source: Variety
Zero chance they make another one now, which destroys my hopes they would ever give us the perfect Expendables movie (which for me would combine stuff from the first two movies).
ReplyDeleteeven if they make another one i have zero hope in these cheap producers, they're out of touch with the fans.
ReplyDeleteHave to agree there unfortunately
Deletethey should have let Sly make the 4th one as he envisioned it in 2017 with the original script, and by now we would already have a fifth one. This Avi guy so so arrogant and out of touch with reality, and his minions Les and Kevin just follow his orders. They ruined Sly's franchises including Rambo like that loser of Winkler did with Rocky. Sly is not lucky to have worked with these losers
ReplyDeleteWell CREED and CREED II are fantastic and (if you can free yourself of the Sly/Winkler background feud) CREED III is also a very good film. And I absolutely love RAMBO: LAST BLOOD!
DeleteYes. Pure reality. AVI RUINED ALL!
Delete