The summer of Barbenheimer is now well and truly over, it seems, as box office numbers coming out today reveal that we’re currently sitting in the midst of the single worst box office weekend of the year—at least so far. The primary culprit? Sylvester Stallone’s Expend4bles, which is gearing up for an incredibly tepid $8 million opening. It is, in fact, bad enough that the movie is basically neck-and-neck with The Nun II, which has been out for three weeks at this point—so little is the audience’s desire to see Sly and his boys get busy doing [remember to look up whatever the dumbass plot of Th4 Ex4endables is and insert a reference to it here].
And while this is certainly the worst opening an Expendables movie has ever received—with the franchise steadily dropping with each installment, from the relative heights of the first movie’s $35 million initial weekend—we feel moved to note that it is by no means the worst opening of Stallone’s career. (Although, if you take, say, Rhinestone, at $5.5 million, or Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, $7.1 million, and adjust them for inflation, 4xpendables lags pretty far behind both infamous flops.) There’s a lot of Bullet To The Head/Escape Plan/Grudge Match material over the last 20 years, is all we’re saying, although this latest result does suggest that one of Stallone’s most reliable latter-day tentpoles is no longer keeping the tent up off the ground.
And, sure, you could put at least some of the blame for the film’s poor performance on the ways the ongoing strikes have curtailed promotional efforts for the movie—but then you’re living in a reality where millions of dollars rest on the sight of Sylvester Stallone looking at Jason Statham and Tony Jaa and ruefully shaking his head about these “knuckleheads,” which is depressing in and of itself. (Also, per Deadline, it’s not like movies aren’t opening considerably better right now despite the same handicaps, including Saw X, which is expected to bring in roughly $20 million next week.)
