Expendables 3 Box Office Watch

Updated 3x:  This will be our final update on the box office performance of The Expendables 3.  Right now the movie stands at $178,000,000 internationally according to Rentrak media.  That’s more or less alongside our prediction of $180-200.  The first movie made $274 million, the second $311 million.  The second also suffered a brief PG-13 scare and a mass shooting at a cinema just before it opened.  But it’s debatable that those factors might have swayed its gross all that much.

The question now is whether or not there’ll be an Expendables 4.  The answer is probably not.  The performance is $38,000,000 in the USA, which is the key territory in deciding whether or not another movie gets made. The profit threshold will not be the same as the others due to the pirating issue, but it’s still probably too low.  There’s also the fact that Millenium is about to or has already come under new ownership, which may also be a contributing blow.  Personally I think we’ll see spin off movies featuring the likes of Lundgren and/or Couture.  DTV movies in other words, that can still put the trademark to pasture, so to speak.  The Expendables namesake is still going to make money, a fact that won’t be lost on some.

Updated 2x:  The Expendables 3 has grossed just under $6 million for its Friday showing, according to Deadline.  Based on that, they predict only $16 million for the three day weekend.  Other reports suggest that the movie has dropped over 50% in takings in Russia, compared to The Expendables 2 there.  It looks like the film will not break $50 million in North America.

Previously: The Expendables 3 opened in North America last night to more than 2,200 locations.  It grossed approximately $875,000.  This is on par with the original and ahead of the sequel, which was around $680,000.  However both of those movies opened at midnight.  The Expendables 3 opened at 7pm.  These are very low numbers for such an early opening.  One of the benefits of a PG-13 movie is that you have more options on screening times, as in earlier.  More accessibility means more money and so far this isn’t working out.  However the full story reveal itself ’till Sunday or Monday.

We’re going to be keeping an eye on the box office performance of The Expendables 3 here this week and through the rest of the month on this site.  Including international take.

The film has officially been released in Lebanon, Singapore and Thailand.  Now obviously these are small countries and only offer a token insight, but nevertheless they are the first official stats.  Their first week stats:

Lebanon:  $115,102
Singapore:  $$125,992
Thailand:  $440,307

In Lebanon, the opening take is pretty much the same as The Expendables 2 opening, which was $112,000.  In Thailand the EX2 opening take was $686,000.  But Singapore has seen the biggest drop, the EX2 opening in that country was $982,000.  So to summarize so far, technically EX3 has accumulated less than half the profit that EX2 had.

But obviously, the North American, European and probably Chinese markets will be where the film lives or dies.  This progress will be updated.