After falling off the Hollywood radar in the late 90s and early 2000s, Sylvester Stallone made an epic resurgence in the late 2000s. This career revival started with Rocky Balboa in 2006. Two years later, he returned to another iconic character with 2008’s Rambo. However, he did not plan on slowing down anytime soon.
In 2010, Stallone ensembled some of the greatest action stars of all time for The Expendables. The movie was a smash hit and a gargantuan slice of nostalgic action that resembled many of the 80s classics the stars were renowned for. To that, The Expendables quickly spawned two sequels in short succession. The Expendables 2 landed well with audiences and was arguably a step up from the first picture. However, The Expendables 3 was largely considered the worst in the franchise. In September 2023, Expendables 4 (aka Expend4bles) hit movie theaters and aimed to revive the franchise after a 9-year hiatus. So, now that the movie has had time to settle in, let’s take a look into the box office figures.
The Decision to Return to an R-rating for Expendables 4
After the first two movies knocked it out of the park with action fanatics, the pressure was on for the third entry to deliver. While The Expendables 3 was action packed, and featured a standout villainous role from Mel Gibson, it failed to impress a larger audience. The main reason for this was the severe tone down in violence. In order to perform better at the box office, The Expendables 3 aimed for a PG-13 rating, which it landed. Although there was plenty of action, it felt rather dumbed down, campy and lacking in ferocity.
When the red band trailer for Expendables 4 landed, it directly addressed public pleas for the movie to be R-rated. Just from the trailer alone, it was clear that film was going to deliver – and it did. Expendables 4 is packed full of action, blood and guts. Furthermore, the film saw the first steamy sex scene in the franchise – a move that felt extremely deliberate to succumb to the R-rated pleas from fans. But after this attempt to return to form, did Expendables 4 perform well at the box office?
Comparing the Box Office Records for Expendables 4 Against The Other Entries
With a budget of around $80 million, the first Expendables movie made an impressive return at the box office, grossing over $274 million. Two years later, the franchise upped the ante. The Expendables 2 added Scott Adkins, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chuck Norris to the already impressive roster. Furthermore, the budget was bumped up to a sizable $100 million. The second installment was better received by critics, and also performed better at the box office, grossing $315 dollars worldwide. However, the third entry became the weakest performing in the series, grossing $214.7 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million.
In September 2023, the filmmakers behind Expendables 4 had truly geared themselves up for box office success. However, the movie opened to a disastrous $8.3 million. It appears that despite its R-rating and new cast members including Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, and Curtis Jackson, Expendables 4 failed to return to its peak form of 2012’s The Expendables 2. To make matters worse, the film was heavily panned by critics. Many reviews complained about its heavy use of CGI, its weak plot and lack of screen time for Stallone. To that, the movie inevitably saw a dip at the box office, and as of the time of this writing, the film has only brought in $50 million worldwide.
Will There Be Another Expendables Movie?
Since the inception of The Expendables, there have been many spinoff ideas thrown around. Sylvester Stallone is renowned for carrying the torch on his projects for as long as he can. However, he knows how to step away when the time is right. But that doesn’t mean the show can’t go on without him. In fact, there was once talk of a female-driven Expendables movie. On top of this, Expendables 4 was originally set to be a spinoff movie entitled “The Expendables: A Christmas Story”. The film was going to be focused on Jason Statham‘s character, Lee Christmas. Although that didn’t come to fruition completely, Expendables 4 is very much Statham’s vehicle, with Stallone taking a back seat.
After the filming of Expendables 4 was rocked by the COVID 19 pandemic, it finally finished filming in 2021. At this time, it was reported that the movie would mark the start of a new trilogy and will take the franchise in a different direction. However, after the weak reception from the movie, it is unsafe to assume that this will still go ahead. Afterall, Hollywood is an unpredictable world and plans change constantly. But perhaps the box office flop of Expendables 4 might be the final nail in the coffin.
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