In what’s proven to be an altogether disappointing year for the biggest movies at the box office bar a few notable exceptions, EXPEND4BLES has come along to tick both of 2023’s recurring boxes in one fell swoop that’s poised to end in nothing but financial disaster.
As well as existing as the latest installment in a long-running franchise that probably didn’t need to be revived or expanded upon, it’s been taking a pounding from critics to wind up with a dismal Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of only 16 percent. And yet, audiences seem to be enjoying it a whole lot more based on a user average that’s incomprehensibly higher at 70 percent.
In addition, Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s return is on course to crash, burn, explode into a million pieces, and then fizzle out at the box office in its opening weekend, with the early projections of $15 million proving to be laughably inaccurate. Last weekend was the second lowest-grossing frame of the entire year for the domestic Top 10, and this one is poised to scrape the bottom of the barrel even further to become the least lucrative three days on the calendar.
As a result, there’s a distinct possibility that EXPEND4BLES won’t even debut at number one, with the aging mercenaries facing stiff competition from The Nun II in its third weekend. Having seen its initial estimates gradually eroded, director Scott Waugh’s first stab at the trigger-happy saga is only eying $8 million, a death blow for a blockbuster that cost an estimated $100 million to produce.