Expendables 4 Delivers Franchise-Worst Box Office Debut
Expend4bles earned just over $8 million in its opening weekend.
It's safe to say the Expendables franchise has run out of ammo. The Expendables first hit theaters in 2010 and made a healthy chunk of change at the box office. Sylvester Stallone getting together a who's who of action heroes created a lot of buzz, which carried the franchise through a couple of films, despite many negative reviews. This weekend, Expendables 4 arrived in theaters, leaving behind every ounce of box office magic that the previous entries possessed.
Expend4bles didn't even come close to delivering the same kind of opening weekend numbers as its predecessors. The film earned just $8.3 million over the weekend, which wasn't even enough to win the weakest box office weekend of the year. Scoring less than $9 million in an opening frame is bad enough, but it's worse when you compare it to the franchise's other openings.
The original Expendables movie opened to $34.8 million domestically back in 2010. The Expendables 2 opened to $28.5 million in 2012 while Expendables 3 earned $15.8 over its first weekend just two years later. Expendables 4 barely made half of the franchise's previous worst opening, despite carrying a similar production price tag as the others.
Potential Expendables 5
Given the rough opening weekend for Expendables 4, a fifth installment doesn't seem very likely right now. That said, stranger things have happened. Maybe a streaming service wants in on the IP? You never know.
If there is a way for Expendables 5 to happen, Expendables 4 director Scott Waugh is definitely interested in continuing the franchise. While speaking to ComicBook.com's Jamie Jirak about the film, Waugh shared his excitement about the potential future of the series.
"First of all? Hell yes. I'd come back for a five," Waugh said. "I had a blast. I considered it an honor to direct this kind of franchise." When asked if there are any actors he'd like to see in the franchise in the future, Waugh replied, "I do not have anyone in my mind, I like to service story first, so let's see what the story is and then we can look at the smorgasbord of cool talent that's out there and see who else we can have pluck in and put in. I think the tough part of the brand is we've kind of ran through the gamut."
Expend4bles is now playing in theaters.