The production of “The Expendables 4” alone is said to have cost $100 million. The action film starring Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone grossed only $36 million worldwide (!) after two weeks. And everything indicates that not much more will happen.
This is evident, for example, from the emergency landing on the domestic North American cinema market. After an already disastrous start with just eight million dollars This was followed by a drop of as much as 69% in the second weekend. Only $2.5 million was added – and that will soon be reduced to zero. Many of the more than 3,500 screens on which Statham and Co. were shown this weekend will likely be used for other films next week.
While the rest of the world saved the overall result in the predecessor “The Expendables 3”, this is not the case with the fourth part. “The Expendables 4” is also disappointing across the board in Germany. Only about 40,000 movie tickets were sold this weekend. In the rest of the world the situation is just as bad or often even more disastrous. Considerable figures are reported from China alone. About half of the world’s total income comes from there.
Recently, it has been repeatedly pointed out that the film could eventually become profitable in the home theater market, and the prediction was made that many people would see it at home. But that was still accompanied by the hope that it would bring in some more money at the cinema.
It’s now clear that “The Expendables 4” won’t come close to meeting its big-screen production costs — and some of those revenues will still remain in theaters. Moreover, it is not clear why there should suddenly be a drastic change in the home theater market. The poor word of mouth and lower interest in a much less interesting and less prominent cast in the fourth part are not going away.
It can already be said that “The Expendables 4” will be one of the biggest flops of the 2023 cinema year. “The Expendables 5” should no longer be up for discussion under these circumstances.