To boot, The Weinstein Co. and Walden Media's new YA film adaptation The Giver wasn't far behind, pulling in $750,000.
Expendables 3, featuring a multigenerational lineup of action stars, is expected to take in $20 million to $25 million for the weekend, a series low. In addition to potential franchise fatigue, a pristine copy of the film leaked on the Internet is likely to hurt grosses, much like what happened when X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pirated before its release in 2009.
The weekend's other new offerings are the R-rated comedy Let's Be Cops, which got a jump on the competition by opening Wednesday, and The Giver. A trio of specialty films all but expand nationwide: Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight, Richard Linklater's indie hit Boyhood and Daniel Radcliffe romantic comedy What If. Magic in the Moonlight will be playing in a total of 964 theaters, while the other two will be in more than 750.
Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is widely expected to stay atop the North American box office in its second weekend with $30 million or more.
Buddy action comedy Let's Be Cops, starring Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson, is already off to a strong start, grossing $3.2 million Thursday for a two-day total of $8.4 million. (It earned an impressive $1.2 million Tuesday night when rolling out at 10 p.m.) The 20th Century Fox film cost a modest $17 million to make and earned a B CinemaScore.
Directed by Luke Greenfield, Let's Be Cops follows two friends who pretend to be Los Angeles police officers. Andy Garcia, Nina Dobrev, Rob Riggle, Keegan-Michael Key and James D'Arcy also star. It is playing in 2,936 locations.
Let's Be Cops came in No. 3 Thursday behind TMNT and Guardians of the Galaxy, which grossed an estimated $4.3 million and $4.2 million, respectively, for domestic totals of roughly $89.2 million and $197.5 million.
The Expendables series is the brainchild of Sylvester Stallone and Avi Lerner, whose Nu Image/Millennium partnered with Lionsgate on the series. The films have generally cost in the $90 million range to produce and have done especially big business overseas. Expendables 2 took in $220.4 million internationally, compared to $85 million in North America.
The first Expendables opened to $34.8 million on the same weekend in August 2010, followed by $28.6 million for the sequel in August 2012.
This time out, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Jason Statham) and other team members battle villain Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). The sprawling cast includes Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Randy Couture, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Terry Crews, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz and Robert Davi.
Millennium and Lionsgate's aggressive marketing campaign for the threequel, which will be playing in 3,221 theaters domestically, included a major stunt at the Cannes Film Festival in May that saw the cast roll down the Croisette in tanks.
Going after younger moviegoers and faith-based audiences is The Giver, directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Lois Lowry's 1993 YA novel of the same name. More than two decades in the making, the $30 million film was co-financed and co-produced by The Weinstein Co. and Walden Media.
The Giver, starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Brenton Thwaites, is expected to debut in the mid-teens and will be playing in roughly 3,003 locations.
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