The Expendables star explains why the fourth movie failed miserably

Dolph Lundgren reckons the fourth Expendables movie was a failure due to the decreased involvement of Sylvester Stallone.

The franchise tells the story of a group of mercenaries, led by Barney Ross (Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham).

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Four movies have been produced so far and the franchise is a throwback to 80s action flicks which is why Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford and Chuck Norris are among the stars who have made appearances.

The Expend4bles was a critical and commercial failure and grossed $51 million worldwide on a production budget of $100m.

Stallone wrote and directed the first movie and acted as one of the screenwriters for the second and third, while he stepped down from both those roles for number four.

And Lundgren, who played Gunner Jensen, thinks Sly not being in charge was detrimental to the final product.

"That project had issues from the beginning, and it usually starts with the script, it really didn't have a good script," he told ScreenRant.

"I'm not playing the lead, so it's hard for me to weigh in on some of the issues, but I know 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."

Patrick Hughes was the original director before he was replaced by Scott Waugh.

2.35 (410)

Expend4bles (2023)

On a cargo ship, nuclear weapons are stolen by terrorists. To prevent a possible World War III, Barney Ross, Lee Christmas and the other members of the Expendables are called in. As the world's last line of defense, they try to put a stop to this with new team members who use different styles and tactics.

Directed by: Scott Waugh
Stars: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone and 50 Cent

Release date problems for The Expendables

The studio made the decision to release The Expendables 4 during the actor strike last year, which meant none of the stars involved were allowed to promote the movie in any capacity, which was another hammer blow to the box office.

"Also, the picture opened during the strike, which wasn't very clever, so they couldn't do any publicity," Lundgren continued.

"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."