14 DAY TRIAL // With such an impressive cast, including some of the biggest names in the action genre both from today and the ‘90s, it seemed almost unfathomable for the “Expendables 3” not to make a serious dent at the box office. The film opened on Friday, and Variety reports, it’s the weakest so far, which makes it a flop.
“Expendables 3” opened to just $16.2 million (€12.09 million), almost half of the gross of the other two installments in their opening weekend, despite having a cast twice as big and twice as famous.
Because the film ended up on torrent sites in full and in HD weeks before the official release, not few were those who put two and two together to conclude that this is one case where piracy clearly affects studios’ earnings.
Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst of BoxOffice.com, is convinced that it’s no coincidence that the third installment is the worst performer in the franchise, not when it was already available online.
“This is really a clear situation where this had an impact,” Contrino tells Variety. “It’s hard to measure, but the ripple effect, not only of the downloads, but of the word-of-mouth that spread as a result, can be seen in the soft opening.”
Leading men Sylvester Stallone and Kellan Lutz were actually hoping the opposite would happen, that fans who downloaded the movie would spread the good word and not only go to the cinema to see the film afterwards but also get friends to tag along with them.
Clearly, that hasn’t happened. Another industry source believes the fact that these films are placed so close apart could have also made interest in the franchise go down. It’s called overkill and it’s known to have happened to several other franchises in the past.
To put it bluntly, it just means that people get tired of seeing the same characters and the same kind of action every year. So, in addition to piracy, “Expendables 3” also had this working against it in its opening weekend.
“It got hurt,” says the industry source for the same media outlet. “You’d have to say there was an impact there. But as low as the numbers are, there was a whole lot more going on. There was some audience rejection. When you go to the well too many times, you’re going to run out of gas.”
If that last part is true and “Expendables” is already suffering from audience rejection, the future is bleak for the other planned installments. Right now, a fourth film is also in the works, as also is a female version, the “Expendabelles.”