The lack of popular new films since September was still not resolved in the North American film market last weekend. Over the weekend, only one new film, "The Expendables 4: The Final Chapter," was released on a large scale in 3,518 theaters, earning an opening box office of US$8.3 million, lower than industry expectations of US$10 million, and unable to surpass "The Nun," which has been in theaters for a long time. 2" with a weekend box office of US$8.4 million, ranking second on the box office list.

The first three installments of the action series "The Expendables" follow the pattern of being released every two years, and this fourth installment is nine years after "The Expendables 3" was released in 2014. From this, it is not difficult to imagine that there has been considerable doubt for a long time whether this fourth film should be filmed.

Back in the distant year of 2010, "The Expendables" was written, directed and starred by Hollywood action star Sylvester Stallone. It really made the nostalgic action movie audience quite excited to watch, and it also received a 2.74 100 million US dollars in global box office, such impressive commercial results (the production cost is about 80 million US dollars). The second part two years later had bigger scenes and more familiar faces, and the global box office further reached 315 million US dollars. Even the "Rotten Tomatoes" score increased from 42% of the first part to 67%.

"The Expendables 4: The Final Chapter" stills

By the time of the third film in 2014, the repetitive story mode and action scenes had begun to make the target audience feel a little tired. As the "Rotten Tomatoes" score fell back to 31%, its global box office also fell to 214 million US dollars. However, after deducting production costs and publicity expenses, the distributor Lionsgate Pictures should not lose money, so filming the fourth The ministry’s project plans are always there. However, in the following years, the soul figure Stallone once retreated. Coupled with the impact of the three-year epidemic, the birth process of "The Expendables 4" became quite tortuous.

The production cost of "The Expendables 4" is still around US$100 million, and the cast includes Thai boxing champion Tony Jaa, Hollywood sexy actress Megan Fox and acting Andy Garcia, etc. It cannot change the shortcomings of standing still and repeating itself that have already appeared in the previous film, so the "Rotten Tomatoes" freshness rating of only 14% is considered worthy of the name. If you want to recover your capital, you can only rely on the pull of overseas markets. In mainland China, which was released a week in advance, its box office has currently reached a total of 142 million yuan.

Moreover, due to the current situation of the Screen Actors Guild strike, all the veteran stars starring in the film are unable to participate in the promotion activities of "The Expendables 4", and they are not even allowed to forward trailer links for them online. This kind of work originally relied heavily on the hard work of Stallone and other leading actors. According to the judgment of a social media data analysis company, the awareness of "The Expendables 4" on social networks before its release was 22 percentage points lower than the average awareness of new Hollywood action-adventure films. The final opening box office only reached the level of the third film. It’s no surprise that it grossed almost half of its $15.8 million opening.

Thanks to the sluggish box office of "The Expendables 4", the total box office revenue in North America this weekend was only about 52 million US dollars, which is already lower than the total box office of this year's American Football "Super Bowl" weekend, setting a new low for weekend box office in 2023. At this point, the great success of the North American film market this summer due to "Barbenheimer" has completely become a thing of the past, and audiences are in urgent need of more high-quality new films to enter theaters.

Fortunately, after nearly 150 days of strike, the Writers Guild of America has reached a preliminary agreement with Hollywood management last weekend. It may only take about ten days to formally sign a new contract. Of course, for the Film and Television Producers Alliance, which represents the interests of employers, there is also the Screen Actors Guild to gnaw on. The latter's strike has lasted for more than two months, and the Screenwriters Guild has previously stated that it will advance and retreat with the Screen Actors Guild, so even if the Writers' Strike comes to an end, many screenwriters may continue to be passive and slow in their work.

Of course, the demands of the Screen Actors Guild are basically the same as those of screenwriter colleagues. Now that management has made concessions to screenwriters, I believe they will follow suit in the near future and negotiate a new contract with the Screen Actors Guild. At present, it is generally believed that the double strike movement in Hollywood will come to an end in October this year.