Monday Morning Box Office Report: Turtles Stay on Top, The Expendables 3 is D.O.A.

Posted by on August 18th, 2014   Filed under: Box Office

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We all knew there was a strong possibility that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would wipe the floor with any and all challengers at the box office, but I don’t think anyone expected The Expendables 3 to be such a pathetic opponent. The latest installment in Stallone’s geriatric action franchise was a massive misfire, opening to a dismal $16 million, less than half of what the first film made back in 2010. It’s unfortunate that piracy will probably take the majority of the blame for this failure and we’ll never know if the PG-13 rating actually kept people away rather than bringing more in. Guardians of the Galaxy remained at #2 and is now on track to outgross Captain America: The Winter Soldier in the U.S., while Let’s Be Cops was actually a bit of a surprise, stealing third place from The Expendables 3 with a $17.7 million debut. The Giver rounded out the top 5, ultimately becoming another YA disappointment. Elsewhere, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood managed to crack the top 10 this week and is on its way to becoming one of most successful indie films of the year.

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — $28.4M
2. Guardians of the Galaxy — $24.7M
3. Let’s Be Cops — $17.7M
4. The Expendables 3 — $16.2M
5. The Giver — $12.8M
6. Into the Storm — $7.7M
7. The Hundred-Foot Journey — $7.1M
8. Lucy — $5.3M
9. Step Up All In — $2.7M
10. Boyhood — $2.2M



  • Jake Defore

    Just for context, The Giver was made on a 25 million dollar budget.

  • 1138sw

    I am curious why they made an expendables 3. The gross numbers were in decline from the 1st to 2nd movie. Isn’t it logical to continue a series if the gross numbers go up not down with each subsequent movie?

    To be honest Stallone and his producers have no one to blame but themselves If the sequel makes less (By 15 million with more theaters) it’s kind of an indication that people might be loosing interests…blame piracy? How about blame poor judgement?

  • LordAwesome

    EX1 made $270m while EX2 made $300m. That’s not a decline.

    5 million downloads X $10 = $50m, which is a significant number for this type of film. Those who say piracy doesn’t matter are probably the same ones who downloaded and are trying to justify their own thievery.

  • Maik

    No.1&No.2 are both vabid comicbook corporate garbage.
    This is fucking depressing.
    People will consume everything nowadays.

  • 1138sw

    5 million downloads does not necessarily equal the 5 million lost revenue dollars. Studies have shown that most people who download movies aren’t gonna see the movie anyway. It doesn’t justify these people’s actions but it also doesn’t justify the lost revenue as well. Lack of interest and competition can probably be better attributed to the movies lack of performance…domestically at least.

    As for overall boxoffice revenue yes you are correct I only accounted for domestic revenue which showed the 15 million dollar decline with increased movie theater presence. I did not include foreign boxoffice that did show an increase in total revenue.

  • ECONOMYpolitica

    The Turtles are still #1! Booooooooooayah!

  • Junker

    I agree that studies have shown this, but this scenario is unprecedented. I can’t recall another time a summer movie has leaked online in HD a whole three weeks before release.

  • Sean

    The closest comparison is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that was supposedly a workprint version of the film with unfinished effects. In that case, it didn’t seem to have an effect on the box office at all.

  • LordAwesome

    That isn’t a close comparison at all.

    Take or add $10m to Wolverine’s opening weekend and it doesn’t make an iota of a difference to its box office perspective. It’s still a hit either way.

    Take $10m off an Expendables’ opening weekend and suddenly its a flop.

    The drop from $25m to $15m in the Expendables’ case is a lot more damaging than the drop from $95m to $85m in Wolverine’s case.

    The profit margins for a Wolverine at much bigger than those for an Expendables’ movie, so $50m total is a huge chunk off the Expendbles could lead to no profits for the studio.

  • Sean

    I just meant it was a close comparison in the sense that it was the only other time a big summer movie has leaked ahead of time in HD.