Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Expendable: Stallone, Statham “Expendables 4” Eyes $8 Mil Weekend Against $100 Mil Budget

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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!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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