It wasn’t exactly banner weekend at the box office, given that the buzziest new release of the week was probably Hulu’s creature feature No One Will Save You.
The Expendables showed its advanced age with a creaky fourth installment starring Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham that resulted in the franchise’s lowest opening yet — just $8.3 million from roughly 3400 theaters.
That was good for second place as of Sunday morning, though it could end up taking the top spot, as The Nun II is on track to gross $8.4 million. Either way, not a single movie crossed the $10 million mark, resulting in the worst box office weekend of the year.
Theaters should rebound next weekend, which sees the release of the well-reviewed sci-fi movie The Creator, as well as the horror sequel Saw X, plus the animated movie PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Meanwhile, Sony’s star-studded Dumb Money expands into theaters nationwide after platforming over the past couple of weeks to mixed results.
The original Expendables opened to $34.8 million in 2010, but the series has been one of diminishing returns, with Expendables 2 taking in $28.5 million in its first frame, and Expendables 3 opening to $15.8 million. That’s a little more than Expendables 4 had been projected for, though it obviously came up well short of expectations.
That’s a problem for a movie that reportedly cost $100 million to produce, and while it surely didn’t help that the new installment — directed by Scott Waugh — drew terrible reviews from U.S. critics, international audiences may be more forgiving, as this franchise has proven popular overseas.
Kenneth Branagh‘s murder mystery A Haunting in Venice took third place with $6.3 million, bringing its global cume to $71.6 million, while The Equalizer 3 finished in fourth place with $4.7 million this weekend, and Barbie rounded out the Top 5 with another $3.2 million. This weekend marked the film’s 10th consecutive week in the Top 5 at the domestic box office, where it has grossed $630 million to date. Directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, Barbie is approaching the $1.5 billion mark worldwide.
Elsewhere, Neon’s supernatural thriller It Lives Inside opened in seventh place with $2.6 million from 2,005 theaters, which isn’t great, while A24’s re-release of the Talking Heads‘ classic concert film Stop Making Sense took in $800,637 from just 264 Imax screens over the weekend. It will expand into more theaters this coming weekend, so bring your dancing shoes to the theater.
