--- description: 'Ninja Turtles' and 'Guardians' continue to dominate title: Box Office: 'Expendables 3' Disappoints image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2dd5ef9e599b1f50/69869fd2361760e52f90d7d5/exp3_20130924_12077_r.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Moviegoers Find _The Expendables 3_ Dispensable  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 17, 2014 6:38 PM CUT  Phil Bray—Lionsgate  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 17, 2014 6:38 PM CUT The latest instalment in the _Expendables_ franchise proved to be, well, [expendable](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-tmnt-stays-no-725952 "undefined") at the box office this weekend, pulling in the lowest domestic opening weekend of the series. _The Expendables 3_ grossed only $16.2 million domestically, finishing in fourth place behind _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ and _Guardians of the_ Galaxy, the No. 1 and No. 2 films, respectively. The movie’s new PG-13 rating failed to drawn more viewers than its R-rated predecessors, according to _The Hollywood Reporter_, and an online leak of the film may have hurt its chances in theaters as well. _Let’s Be Cops_, which opened Wednesday, snagged the third spot with a $17.7 million weekend — about how much it cost to make — bringing its five-day gross up to $26.1 million. _The Expendables 3_, which stars Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham among many others, wasn’t the only disappointment: the decades-in-the-making adaptation of _The Giver_, starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep, came in fifth with a gross of $12.8 million. \[[_THR_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-tmnt-stays-no-725952 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3131451/box-office-expendables-3-ninja-turtles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3131451/box-office-expendables-3-ninja-turtles/"},"headline":"Moviegoers Find The Expendables 3 Dispensable","datePublished":"2014-08-17T18:38:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:42:42.202Z","description":"But Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy continue to dominate","url":"https://time.com/3131451/box-office-expendables-3-ninja-turtles/","keywords":["movies","Box-office"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2dd5ef9e599b1f50/69869fd2361760e52f90d7d5/exp3_20130924_12077_r.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2dd5ef9e599b1f50/69869fd2361760e52f90d7d5/exp3_20130924_12077_r.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BRAY_20130917_EXP3_12291.dng","caption":"BRAY_20130917_EXP3_12291.dng","creditText":"Phil Bray—Lionsgate","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3131451/box-office-expendables-3-ninja-turtles/","name":"Moviegoers Find The Expendables 3 Dispensable"}}]}] ```