For action-movie fans of a certain age, “The Expendables” franchise is like a childhood fever dream brought to life: all the beloved action movie stars of yesteryear collected under a single film’s banner, with enough explosions and bombast to make Michael Bay blush.
It’s easy to see why the first three movies of this franchise (the first one released in 2010) resonated so well with fans and audiences, despite being even more of a brainless popcorn blockbuster series than the “Fast and Furious” franchise.
The same cannot be said about the fourth and most recent iteration of “The Expendables” — “Expend4bles” — which came and went with far more of a whimper than a bang in a rough 2023.
Dolph Lundgren (perhaps best known for portraying a murderous Soviet superboxer Ivan Drago in the “Rocky” movies) was one of the action heroes of yore who’s prominently featured in these movies. He spoke to ScreenRant about why the fourth “Expendables” movie was such a critical and commercial failure.
“I didn’t read the reviews, because I kind of knew what they were gonna say,” Lundgren told the outlet. “That project had issues from the beginning, and it usually starts with the script, it … didn’t really have a good script.
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“I’m not playing the lead, so it’s hard for me to weigh in on some of those issues, but I know [Sylvester] Stallone wasn’t involved, like he usually is.
“He just played a character in it, and when he’s in charge, the quality is going to be pretty good, it doesn’t drop below a certain level.
“But he wasn’t involved, so I think the problem was with the script, and then the director was replaced, like, a month before shooting.”
Lungren would further elaborate on how the troubled — and bloated — production of the movie all but foretold the troubled reception the film would receive.
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“So between those two things — it’s hard to make a really good movie, and I also think that the originals, the first two especially, it was kind of about the team,” Lundgren said. “It was about a team effort, and some of that got lost, so I was sad to see go that way. Because 50 was in it, he was great, and Megan Fox, they were all good assets.
“Also, the picture opened during the strike, which wasn’t very clever, so they couldn’t do any publicity. If you would have had a big star-studded premiere with Megan and 50 and Stallone and Statham, and the rest of them, myself, Andy Garcia, there would have been more eyeballs on it.
“And I’m sure it would have done better, but it’s too bad.
“I was disappointed.”
According to ScreenRant, there wasn’t much good news at all the glean from the film’s performance, as the abysmal performance also appears to have shuttered an Expendables spinoff that would’ve focused on the action heroines of the past.
“Given The Expendables 4 not only proved to be the worst performing installment in the franchise, but also a box office bomb on its own, only grossing a reported $51.1 million worldwide against its $100 million production budget, the franchise’s future seems very doubtful,” ScreenRant noted.
The outlet added: “A female-led spinoff entitled The Expendabelles was in development for quite some time before finally being shelved by Millennium Films, with the studio instead pushing for more female characters to be integrated into the mainline movies.”
“Expend4bles” is currently not available on streaming without purchase, but is expected to release on Peacock in late 2024 or early 2025.
