After a night of disappointing Thursday night preview screenings, Expendables 4 (a.k.a. Exepend4bles) has bombed at the box office. It opened to the lowest box office figure in franchise history.
During its opening weekend, Expendables 4 grossed just $8.3 million domestically. This is just a little over half of the previous franchise low, The Expendables 3 ($15,879,645).
The third installment in the Expendables series was already a disappointment. Lionsgate had hoped that reverting back to an R rating (after a PG-13 threequel) would solve its issues. The first two films in the franchise grossed over $28 million each domestically during their opening weekends. All three have legged out to over $200 million during their respective runs. It remains to be seen if the fourth will do so.
Expendables 4 once again teams up some of the biggest action stars ever. Jason Statham leads the cast. Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture all reprise their roles. The likes of 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Iko Uwais, and Andy Garcia join the franchise in the fourth film. Scott Waugh, who previously directed 2014's Need for Speed and Hidden Strike earlier this year, directed the film. Kurt Wimmer, Tad Daggerhart, and Max Adams penned the script.
It wasn't looking good for Expendables 4 dating back to its Thursday night previews box office haul. The film made just $750,000 in Thursday night previews (which began at 6pm). For context, the third film in the series opened to $875,000 during Thursday night previews with screenings that began at 8pm. Expendables 4 was projected to open at $11.7 million by Boxoffice Pro, however, it clearly didn't meet those expectations.
Expendables 4 is in theaters now.