EXPEND4BLES Flops At Box Office Due to Excessive Violence, Language

Published: September 26, 2023

EXPEND4BLES Flops At Box Office Due to Excessive Violence, Language

By Movieguide® Contributor

EXPEND4BLES continues to fail at the box office because of excessive violence and language, falling behind THE NUN II, A HAUNTING IN VENICE and mid-summer blockbuster BARBIE.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the fourth installment in the EXPENDABLES franchise has made just $8.3 million at the US and Canadian box office.

“Its predecessors — THE EXPENDABLES (2010), THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2013) and THE EXPENDABLES 3 (2014) — debuted at $34.8 million, $28.6 million and $15.9 million, respectively,” they wrote, adding, “The latest installment in the series fell short of already-modest projections, which ranged from about $15 million to $17 million domestically.”

THE NUN II, A HAUNTING IN VENICE, THE EQUALIZER 3 and BARBIE all beat out the action movie at the box office this week, but IndieWire reported that this was an all-time low for 2023’s box office.

“This weekend’s tentative total is around $52 million, the year’s lowest,” they wrote, but added that the box office is up 26% from this same time last year.

The main reason EXPEND4BLES is failing at the box office? Excessive violence and foul language.

Movieguide®’s review reports of the movie’s violence:

Some very strong and lots of strong, intense action violence throughout with some bloody effects and gore includes man’s body torn apart by an RPG, many men are shot point blank, throats are slit and stabbed from the front and behind, men stabbed hit in chests with knives, many explosions, lots of gunfights, vehicles chase one another, playful fighting in one scene between man and his girlfriend (both are part of a team of commandos), men with rifles roam corridor and pick off adversaries that appear, etc.

Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer gave the movie a 15%, and reviews have been largely negative, with critics objecting to the excessive violence and language.

CNN’s Brian Lowry called EXPEND4BLES “about as generic as these things get,” adding, “‘The Disposables’ would describe it better.”

A portion of the Movieguide® review for EXPEND4BLES reads:

EXPEND4BLES is the most exciting and entertaining of the four EXPENDABLES movies. It has a strong moral, patriotic worldview where a group of rough and tumble American soldiers save the world from World War III. However, EXPEND4BLES has many “f” words, some gory deaths, a high body count, a comical image of extreme male nudity, and other objectionable issues.