The Big Picture It’s as if the entire world collectively decided that the joke is over, and that it no longer finds the Expendables series amusing. While it was becoming increasingly clear over the last decade that the franchise was more attractive to international audiences than domestic crowds, the recently released fourth installment — stylized as Expend4bles — is bucking that belief, despite featuring an ensemble cast designed to appeal to audiences from all corners of the globe.
The movie delivered a franchise-low opening of $8 million at the domestic box office, missing out on the top spot to holdover hit The Nun II, which made around $500,000 more in its third weekend. But Expend4bles is stalling even at the global box office. The movie has grossed only around $21 million from overseas territories, $19 million of which has come from China, where it debuted a week ago. It also opened to just under a million dollars each in the U.K.
That’s a low figure for a movie that reportedly cost $100 million to produce, and around $20 million to market amid an industry-wide strike, which is thankfully coming to an end after several months. The strike might have actually impacted the movie's performance, if you take into account the collective reach that its ensemble cast wasn’t able to leverage because studios were holding out on paying artists a fair wage.
The Franchise Has Been on a Downward Spiral Domestically By comparison, The Expendables made more than $30 million in its domestic debut alone, and ended up grossing $100 million stateside and over $260 million worldwide in 2010.
The series began as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to old-school action stars, and over the years, has featured the who’s who of the genre in a series of colorful supporting roles. Directed by Scott Waugh, who had another movie out just a couple of months ago, Expend4bles also features Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Megan Fox, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa and Andy Garcia. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.