Thirteen years ago, “The Expendables” seemed like a good idea. A movie about a team of mercenaries let loose by the CIA with Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham looked cool. Worldwide box office was $268 million.
Two more films followed, successively collapsing at the box office. “E3” made just $39 million in the US, $209 mil total worldwide especially in places where English wasn’t necessary,
So why make another one? Answer: Greed.
LionsGate released number 4 on Thursday night. It’s a bomb, with an expected $8 million weekend. (In China, it made $10 million. They aren’t picky.) The budget was at least $100 million. The movie has a hilarious 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, off the high mark of “E2” which had a 67. These are not great films but you could probably doze through them at a 39% off matinee.
I’ve always harbored a grudge against this series. In 2014 they had a mega press conference at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, and brought in Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and so on. The movie also featured Harrison Ford and the loathsome Mel Gibson. They had a parade of tanks come down the Croisette to deliver all these guys. It was a big stunt, and the Carlton was not careful about who they let into the press conference. At the end of it I realized someone had stolen my iPad mini right out of my shoulder bag! The Carlton didn’t care, probably because the iPad was…wait for it…expendable!
