The Expendables 4 Is Dead On Arrival With Dismal $8 Million Opening Weekend
They'll die when they're dead ... or when the franchise is, anyway. That time might not be too far away, as "The Expendables 4" (aka "Expend4bles") is on track for the worst opening weekend of the franchise so far. The sequel grossed just $750,000 in Thursday previews, which is less than "The Expendables 3" ($875,000) managed all the way back in 2014 — and that movie was a box office disappointment by the end of its run.
As reported by Variety, things didn't get much better from there, with "Expendables 4" managing an opening day total of just $3.2 million including those Thursday ticket sales. Per Deadline, the movie is now in a close race with "The Nun II" for the weekend No. 1 spot, with both movies looking at an estimated $8 million total for the weekend. That's a good result for "The Nun II," showing stronger legs than the first movie despite a smaller start. But for "The Expendables 4," it's a long way short of the $15-17 million debut the studio was hoping for. With a budget of $100 million, $8 million is a disastrous start.
"The Expendables 3" had a $15.8 million opening weekend and ultimately grossed $214.6 million worldwide by the end of its run, from a production budget of $90 million. That probably wasn't enough to break even, given that 81.7% of the global total came from overseas markets (where studios typically get a smaller percentage of ticket sales), and the bulk of those foreign ticket sales were in China (where studios only get 25% of the box office). So, why did Lionsgate think that "Expendables 4" was a good idea?
A botched attempt to fix the franchise
When "The Expendables 3" landed with more of a whimper than a bang at the box office, there were extenuating circumstances. Three weeks before it hit theaters, a high-quality version of the movie was leaked in its entirety on movie pirate websites, and had been downloaded by an estimated 5.12 million people by the end of its opening weekend. Though Lionsgate didn't comment on the impact of the leak publicly, Variety reported at the time that studio executives were privately pointing the finger at piracy for stealing away potential ticket sales.
Sylvester Stallone, meanwhile, pointed his finger at the movie's PG-13 rating, which was a step into gentler territory after the R rating of the first two entries. The actor didn't hold back in an interview with Crave Online, saying that the lower rating was "a horrible miscalculation on everyone's part in trying to reach a wider audience but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects. I'm quite certain it won't happen again."
Sure enough, the trailer for "The Expendables 4" was very emphatic about the fact that the fourth movie was R-rated. As in, the entire trailer was built around bragging about the rating and implicitly apologizing for "The Expendables 3" being PG-13. "WE HEARD YOU" the intercut text shouted, quoting random tweets from people asking for more violence before announcing "THEY A[R]E BACK."
The impact was somewhat spoiled by most of the R-rated violence in the trailer consisting of unconvincing CGI blood splatter. But perhaps a bigger problem for "Expend4bles" this weekend is that it promised to scratch an itch that other movies are already scratching.
An equalized playing field
This weekend's box office top 5 includes two other recently released R-rated movies: "The Nun II" and "The Equalizer 3." That's an issue for "The Expendables 4," especially given that the biggest selling point in the marketing was its R rating. For people who want fun, schlocky, R-rated thrills, "The Nun II" is right there. For people who want to watch a beloved older actor dispensing R-rated action violence, "The Equalizer 3" is right next to it. And both of those movies have far better reviews than "The Expendables 4," which has garnered a dismal 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing.
There's more trouble on the very near horizon, with "Saw X" arriving next weekend to deliver plenty of extreme, sadistic violence to satisfy gorehounds. Lionsgate releasing "Expendables 4" amid this crowd of releases and marketing it on its R-rated violence is the cinematic equivalent of opening a leather goods shop in Arizona.
It also doesn't help that the other key point in the marketing for "Expendables 4" was its all-star cast of action veterans, ranging from the mainstream (Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, 50 Cent) to the more niche (Randy Couture, Tony Jaa, Levy Tran). Having the cast names hog all the space on the poster didn't really make up for the fact that none of the cast are able to promote the movie due to the ongoing actors strike. The one actor who did break SAG-AFTRA rules to share a poster on social media, 50 Cent, did so only to complain about how terrible the poster looked.
"WTF did we run out of money?" Mr. Cent inquired. "Why my head look like it ain't connected to my body?" (He later deleted the post.)