The third chapter in the hit franchise will open on August 15

Jul 25, 2014 14:41 GMT  ·  By
“The Expendables 3” will be out in theaters on August 15, features even more action movie stars than the previous 2 installments
   “The Expendables 3” will be out in theaters on August 15, features even more action movie stars than the previous 2 installments

Now here’s a major conundrum, the kind that doesn’t happen all that often: Lionsgate’s “The Expendables 3,” starring Sylvester Stallone and every action movie star of the ‘90s (and probably their closest male relatives) has leaked in full online, 3 whole weeks ahead of the official theatrical release.

Variety confirms the news, noting that almost 200,000 copies have already been downloaded – and the number is bound to go up in millions with each hour if the movie studio can’t somehow pull all illegal copies, and do it quick.

“It’s also worth noting that the target demo for the movie is young males, who are the biggest users of illegal file-sharing services,” the trade publication says.

Obviously, this begs the question in the headline: will this hurt the official release? It’s difficult to tell, precisely because leaks with so many days in advance rarely happen in Hollywood, especially after every studio boss saw what happened when “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” leaked in 2009.

This is the best situation to refer to in order to approximate how this will impact “Expendables,” assuming, of course, that the leak is controlled / stopped in time and the illegal downloads don’t reach astronomical figures.

In 2009, after much talk of trouble with the production, extensive reshoots, and even some re-writes in the 13th hour, Fox saw their worst nightmare come true when a copy of the film ended up on torrent sites. Unlike it is happening now with “The Expendables,” that one included an unfinished version of the film, which still required a lot of post-production work.

Before Fox acted to suppress the spread of this version of “Wolverine,” too many fans had seen it and word spread like wildfire about how bad it seemed overall, unfinished scenes notwithstanding. And this was the nail in the coffin of that “Wolverine” film, with fans and critics alike saying that it was one of the worst X-Men / superhero movies of all times.

Some, more dramatic, even accused Fox of “killing” Wolverine, one of the most beloved superheroes in the comic book universe.

Of course, with the “Expendables” franchise, this kind of emotional investment is completely absent: we’re talking here about fun and silly movies, which are twice the fun because they happen to star some of our action movie idols from back in the day and have double the explosion scenes than a Michael Bay production (and that’s saying a lot).

No one actually expects them to be solid filmmaking or fault them when they turn so silly it’s almost painful to watch. So, even if the post-production work on the leaked version of the third installment is not complete (though it probably is, from what we’re hearing), it will make too little a difference with fans.

True fans will see it in theaters too, but the “lesser” fans will be satisfied with the illegal version, as is usually the case with torrent movies.

On the other hand, this means that, if Lionsgate can’t plug the leak, they will see a major dent in their box office gross come August. In this particular case, time is of the essence because, as they say, time is money.