Expendables 4 Headed to Franchise’s Lowest Opening Weekend at the Box Office

Expendables 4 is marching towards the franchise’s lowest box office opening. The news comes as the opening day totals for the Sylvester Stallone movie come in at about $3.2 million. Now, that’s lagging pretty far behind the $15.8 million that The Expendables 3 put up back in 2014. It’s a different world out there and although projections had the fourth installment in this franchise opening to about $15 million this time around, it’s going to be hard to get there. Also a factor in this slow start out of the gates is the competition from The Nun II. It’s now firmly fall in a lot of moviegoers minds. That means these horror films are going to get a bump. 

One silver lining for Expend4bles is that overseas markets will likely be more kind to the sequel than the United States box office has been. The CinemaScore for the fourth movie sits at a B- here. Add that to the negative reviews and a lot of the picture takes shape. However, overseas things are different. Jason Statham and Stallone remain big box office draws. Performance in different theaters could bring that number up. It isn’t just the two action mainstays either. Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson are along for this installment as well. Hopefully, some star power can turn the tide.

Expendables 4 Director Excited About Stallone

Despite the current performance at the box office, Scott Waugh was stoked about getting to work with Sylvester Stallone. He talked to ComicBook.com about joining this popular franchise and everything Expendables 4. In our chat, he talked about how big of a role Stallone plays in the current installment.

“Look, I think it was exciting because it was a challenge, but I really – with where the story was going on this particular film – I really wanted to be very careful and make sure we are still on brand with Expendables,” Waugh said about his franchise debut. “And I really wanted to actually go back to tonally Expendables 1 where the whole franchise started, lean in what Sly originally created. And so there’s a lot of easter eggs and homages in the movie. If you know the franchise well, you’ll catch a bunch of them, and it was just exciting to take the brand and make it fresh, but not deviate.”

“Well, if anyone knows Sly, his ability to take the backseat is completely incapable. He is such an incredible storyteller in his own right, and his resume will lean deeply into that,” Waugh added. “So I think Sly is such a wonderful collaborator and I think Jason [Statham] and myself especially, we always were respectful of him and asked for his opinions. Sly loves to be involved and I love for him to be involved because he has such a wealth of expertise. So it was super fun working with him.” 

Scwarzenegger Isn’t In Expendables 4

Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t in Expendables 4 and the reasoning makes a lot of sense. He says that there is absolutely no bad blood between he and Sylvester Stallone. The only reason that he isn’t in Expendables 4 is because of the time commitment needed to shoot these movies. He did the first three because it wasn’t that big of an ask. But, the third one was about the absolute limit for the aging star. They’ll work together again. But, probably not in this franchise.

“It’s done and I’m not in it,” Schwarzenegger said previously. “I said, ‘You know what, we have done this and I’m out of it.’ And [Stallone] really understood. I did [the first Expendables] as a favor to Sly. I shot it on a Saturday for two hours quickly in a church with Bruce Willis. Sly said, ‘Oh, can you do Expendables 2?’ and I did that for a weekend. Then it was expanded for Expendables 3. And that was it. We’re going to do something together one day.”

Are you surprised Expendables 4 isn’t doing better? Let us know in the comments!