The Expendables franchise seems to be over as the fourth film will limp its way to the top of the charts with a potential single digit opening
Numbers have begun rolling in for this second to last weekend of September 2023 and to be brutally honest: they are pretty terrible. Expend4bles is looking to come in severely under where even the most modest of tracking had it with what is looking like an $8-$10 million opening. In our Thursday predictions I saw that the fourthquel was tracking to a mid teens opening and thought it could get to around $17 million. It seems audiences decided to go the other way with this one and let it die a quiet death, the way many members of the Expendable team seem to have, as the film only features a handful of returning stars.
In his 5/10 review for the film, our Editor in Chief Chris Bumbray said that the film was neither as bad as most critics had written, yet still not very good. I would say I agree with that assessment, although I think I may have liked it better than his 5/10. Perhaps going into the movie after reading a lot of those negative reviews tempered my expectations and when it ended I was able to say that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had read. Although the reports of this movie having some horrible CGI/ Green Screen are not exaggerated. There is one scene in particular that I won’t spoil here that is embarrassingly bad for all involved. With a reported $100 million budget, I have to assume that money went to catering and not the VFX crew.
We will see where final estimates end up tomorrow, but it appears Expend4bles is a massive box office bomb. The good news is that even with that horrendous opening, the film will still more than likely lay claim to the top spot at the box office.
Coming in second place and proving to have some solid staying power is The Nun II with what is looking like a $7-$8 million third week take. By the end of the weekend the supernatural tale should have nearly $70 million in domestic receipts with worldwide grosses pushing this one to around $180 million. Not too shabby for a movie budgeted in the $30 million range.
Third place will go to Hercule Poirot as Academy Award Winner Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie inspired tale, A Haunting in Venice looks to drop nearly 60% of his audience with a $5-$6 million second weekend take. According to producer James Prichard, there could potentially be more Hercule Poirot adventures in the future, although I’m not sure the box office returns on Haunting in Venice are giving the studio much enthusiasm to pursue such projects.
Coming in fourth place is the Denzel Washington franchise finale The Equalizer 3 with what is looking to be a $4-$5 million weekend as the film begins to even out in its fourth week of release while the IMAX release of Barbie helped propel the blockbuster film to a tenth straight weekend in the top five with an estimated $3-$4 million weekend.
What do you make of Expend4bles dismal opening? Is the franchise DOA or can international numbers save it? Let us know in the comments your thoughts and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full rundown on this weekends box office numbers.