Expendables 3

Saw no topic for it. Expendables 3 bombs at 16M weekend.

It's probably because of the movie being released online via torrent a month earlier that ruined the box office sales. Pity, it was a pretty OK sequel all things considered.

More like it coming out around the time of other movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and it being the third sequel of just an ok series is responsible for the bad box office not some torrent.

Guardians of the Galaxy and TMNT, both of which have surprised a lot of people with a box office take that is far above a normal August release, in consecutive weekends.

Honestly, it can easily be a combination of 3 things.

1. Leaked torrent.
2. Competing with GotG and TMNT.
3. It's PG-13 rating.

edited 16th Aug '14 6:00:49 PM by VeryMelon

PG-13 didn't bother the 2nd one, IIRC.

As for E3 (no, not the expo), I had forgotten it was coming out. Now that I've been reminded, tomorrow I'll have to go correct that oversight.

The second one was rated R.

Huh, thought I recalled some noise being made about it being PG-13, and people claiming it was because Chuck Norris didn't want so much foul language.

Guess I should know by now to not go off of shoddy memory.

Anyway, as much as some people make noise about how an R rating is supposed to make things so awesome, I'm skeptical that 3's PG-13 is anywhere near as much a box office take issue as the 1-2 combo of going against GotG and TMNT.

And the internet really needs to get over itself if it thinks some twats torrenting a copy of the film is going to ruin sales. There's not that many people who would bother hunting down a decent torrent who would otherwise have actually paid for it in the first place in the absence of a pirated copy.

There's actually a very amusing way to note that is incorrect: Chuck Norris isn't in this movie.

Then THAT explains why it bombed!

They did lose a bit of star power as far as action stars go. Bruce Willis (due money differencies), Van Damme and Chuck Norris (I have no clue why) are all absent from this movie.

From the searching I did after flubbing the rating thing, Norris at least said he wasn't going to be back before 3 was even more than wild "of course there's going to be a sequel!" kind of speculation. He didn't say why, just that he wasn't. (The internet, of course, went into full retard mode with claims it was not getting a PG-13 cut that made Norris step away. )

In any case, while some of the previous cast didn't return, there were new people brought in for the 3rd movie, and not B-listers who most would respond to with "who's that?" (though I admit I had trouble matching some names to faces on the giant theater banner I saw before watching Guardians on its opening weekend).

edited 16th Aug '14 10:00:13 PM by Nohbody

Van Damme's case is a riddle because he said he was assured to be back as his character's Back Up Twin called Claude Vilain, which sounds fucking stupid but epically fucking stupid and fitting for this franchise. It's a real shame it didn't happen.

TBH a lot of the cast members that Barney Ross recruited were pretty obscure, I didn't recognize any of them myself until the credits rolled and showed their names. It was all of the older cast members who were recognizable (and who would've thought that Seinfeld of all people could act like a badass?!)

edited 17th Aug '14 6:20:26 AM by SgtRicko

Uh...Seinfeld wasn't in it. I'm a bit confused.

I meant Kelsey Grammar's character. Forgot which show he was from, it was either Seinfeld or Fraiser. Lemme check... yep, it was Frasier!

Yeah, Grammer isn't someone you'd picture immediately as badass, until you remember he played Beast in the original X-Men trilogy. While Wolvie was doing his all-too-common Spotlight-Stealing Squad thing, Beast wasn't exactly a passive observer.

I hope this hasn't killed the franchise, rumor is that they want Clint Eastwood for number 4.

The internet also needs to get over itself if it thinks that jerks freely bootlegging copies of movies like this isn't having any negative impact at all and its no big deal if the continue to do so.

If they were never going to pay to see it, they should never have downloaded the movie to watch it either.

They are not entitled to see these movies! If they're not going to pay and they're not going to wait till they can legally watch them for free, then they shouldn't be watching them at all!

^ I didn't mean it to sound like a) it didn't have any impact at all, or b) that I condone it. I was just talking about what could have had effects on the BO take being underwhelming.

Anyway, I just got back from it, and since I don't have a hard-on for bloodgutsgore, the fairly bloodless carnage courtesy of the PG-13 rating didn't bother me, nor did the reduction in foul language. For what it was, an homage to 80s and 90s action flicks, I thought it did its job well. The new people were decent, not really standing out above the genre average but not total shitbirds either, and the plot was serviceable if not exactly Oscar material (long story short: former co-founder of the team became the baddie dealing weapons to anyone who was willing to pay, and the CIA wants him taken care of and brought in to The Hague for war crime trials; cue Ross, for whom it becomes personal, and let the mayhem ensue).

In regards to the earlier commentary regarding Kelsey Grammer, he didn't really do any badassery, but was Ross' source for the new people on the team.

One minorly annoying thing, however, was Antonio Banderas' role. For a little over half or so of his total screen time he was an annoying motormouth whose badassery was left in doubt aside from his monkeyman routine (won't go into details to not spoil) when introduced. Fortunately when "Shit got real" so did he, though even then he was still kinda mouthy.

edited 17th Aug '14 1:27:54 PM by Nohbody

My mates and I really enjoyed Banderas' character, actually.

Most of us weren't familiar with the new young'uns though. We all agreed that mountaineering-hacker looked really familiar, and I was aware of Ortiz and Rousey from their ring-based careers.

It really felt like the original cast were underused (scratch that, they definitely were), and I really wanted Jet and Statham to have great fistfights like the first movie, but alas, it was not to be.

Yeah, the old crew didn't get as much action, but I thought that was kind of the point of bringing in new blood, to give the new people a chance to show their abilities, especially after collectively playing Damsel in Distress following their capture by Stonebanks.

However much the original set of actors may enjoy what they do (and not all of them do enjoy it, obviously, since they didn't return) they're not getting any younger, and if the series continues like is apparently the plan there needs to be accommodation of that fact.

That all depends on whether there's any real demand for a Number 4, let alone a 5 or 6.

Well, yeah, but when they're making 3 thinking about future installments other than in general terms is kinda getting ahead of oneself.

Honestly, I liked the movie. My favorite in the series. Mel Gibson was a fantastic villain, I liked the new recruits, and I really, really want to see a spinoff starring Doc.