After a wait of more than nine years, The Expendables are back for a fourth instalment with a return to an R-rating, but what appears to be a lack of box office power. The movie opened to a domestic total of $8.3 million for the weekend, narrowly missing out on the number 1 spot in a very slow weekend.
The sequel earned the unwanted title of lowest opening weekend in the franchise. Lionsgate had previously estimated an opening weekend of $15-18 million, similar to the $15.8 million Expendables 3 launched in 2014. That film opted to abandon its R-rating in the hope of a bigger audience, a move that largely backfired as the core audience for this throwback franchise didn't want another PG-13 actioner. Matters worsened when a digital copy of the movie was leaked on torrent sites two weeks before release.
Expendables 3 had a lot working against it and bottomed out with a woeful domestic total of $39 million. A robust international box office of $214 million saved some face, which Expendables 4 hopes to replicate, or more accurately, desperately needs to, as this sequel comes with a reported $100 million production budget. At the time of writing, BoxOfficeMojo has yet to report what Expendables 4 made internationally. According to Deadline, it grossed $10.9 million from its opening weekend in China, but that is the only confirmed number so far.
The Nun 2 held on to the top spot with $8.4 million, while it is tracking significantly below the first film after the same number of days; the sequel has crossed the $200 million mark worldwide. A thrifty $38 million production budget means this latest chapter in The Conjuring Universe is already a respectable hit. So, expect news of a Nun 3 before the year is over.
Elsewhere in the US Top 10, Kenneth Branngh's third time directing and starring as Hercule Poirot; this time, it's an adaptation of Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party, aka A Haunting in Venice. The film has a current worldwide box office of $71 million, which I hope improves over the coming weeks as it may lack the star-studded cast of previous instalments, but it's an enjoyable and lavishly shot spooky murder mystery. Our fourth sequel in a row rounds out the top 4 with The Equalizer 3 still making an impact at the box office; the final chapter in the action trilogy has a global haul of $150 million, well on the way to matching the $190 million apiece the previous two instalments made.
Barbie held fifth place, taking its domestic total to over $630 million and a worldwide haul of over $1.4 billion. The blockbuster movie launched digitally last week, but that isn't stopping people from rewatching Barbie on the big screen. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 continues to do sparse business with a second frame of $3 million; written and directed by star Nia Vardalos, the threequel has generated $30 million worldwide. Finally, the only other new movie on release was Bishal Dutta's supernatural horror, It Lives Inside, landing in seventh place with a respectable $2.6 million.