The sequel launched via Universal in just two markets, Italy and Russia, earning $9.9 million. Of that, the latter territory contributed $7.9 million -- 45% higher than the first "Expendables".

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118058031/

INTL total should be much higher though as these are only Universal's numbers, it also opened

Portugal, Argentina, Croatia, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Netherlands, Singapore, Slovenia, Thailand, UK, Ukraine, Armenia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Norway, Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.

Very nice start.

No China this time, though. Overall INTL total will be the same or less without China.

$17.3 INTL total for this weekend just gone.

Good start but without China I see a drop in OS total. Would be a good total but given the budget might not be a good idea for a sequel cause this one might just barely get them the money.

What is the budget? and how did you find it out? I've looked, but nothing..

Its present in mark's post here

viewtopic.php?p=1786194#p1786194

Thank you, Jack Sparrow.

Japan and others will more than make up for China. If Russia is any indication, and higher selling points with Van Damm, Schwarzenegger and Willis, I think this will have no problem hitting 200 million overseas.

Considering probably half of that went to the stars, they made a pretty awesome action film for 45 million.

I doubt the stars got $45m. The majority are B-movie stars, they probably payed them to star in this.

Even the big ones ain't as big as they used to be.

Stallone got paid 15 million for Expendables 2
Statham has a 5 million asking price (He got that for Crank 2 and that film cost 8 million to make) He probably got around 7 or so.
A List Cameos from Arnold and Bruce probably 4 million each
Jet Li probably got 3-4
Van Damme has a 2.5 million asking price just for DTV movies (him getting 3-4 million is not ridiculous for a film with money to spend.
Lungren probably got around 2 (He has 1 million asking price for DTV)
Crews, Randy, and Hemsworth probably a around 3 million total.

That's 41 million with still Norris who needed a lot of wooing and control over the lack of language in the film, Simon West, and a few other others.

Your sources?

No fucking way Jet Li got $3-4 million for what looked like two days on set.

According to imdb he makes 5-13 million a picture.

Variety once did a long long article on DTV stars making out like bandits if they were once stars. I can't find the article but at imdb it shows Van Damme made 2- 3.5 million for DTV Films in 2006. Lungren same thing. It was actually a really great read. almost a throwback to old contract players. The movies only cost like 10 million to make, more than a quarter goes to the name to make sure it gets a release. They usually work 5-15 days, then thanks to Redbox, DVDs, and demand they usually at least double there investment. It mentioned that Segal despite not being in theaters anymore was averaging 15-20 million a year with the 4 or 5 projects a year.

Val Kilmer and Christian Slater also have non negotiable DTV contracts because they know films are shit and their reputation obviously takes a hit, but you do 4 or 5 different projects a year at 4 million, they're doing just as fine as A listers. Though it's only for actors that were once names. Unfortunately the rest of the DTV world makes shit and they get bad reputations.

Mexico:

OW:$3.2M

Expendables:

OW:$1M
Total:$5.3M

TheGun that would be interesting to read....still it is hard to believe that they spent $45m just for the stars.

I don't think it's too far off. Explosions in cheap foreign countries is actually much cheaper these days. Back in the days when Rambo 3 and Die Hard 2 were the biggest budgeted films of all time, not much has really changed. Digital cameras are cheaper than film, Real effects are much much cheaper than CGI. The difference is these guys are so experienced with these type of films they know how to cut corners, and they focus more on the choreography.

TE2 grossed $3m opening weekend in the UK. It grossed $15m overall for the first one. There's another disappointment. Can Japan and Russia make up for all of these losses (No China, under-achieving UK etc..)?

Also, I agree with your guesses of salaries for the TE2 stars, but Jet Li would not have yielded such a high price for such a small role, and Stallone did not get $15m for TE2. It's not viable. He would have got $5m upfront (at most), and then performance-related-pay for the rest, which doesn't look like it will happen now.

That points to a great increase over the first one. Not that I disagree with you, but where is your source?

15 for Stallone is confirmed. Considering he got 15 24 years ago its not impossible. Say what you what you want to about Stallone. But the man got 20 million for Eye See You, once he gets any credibility he smart enough to take advantage

Source for this confirmation?

Thanks pepe pippen

It could be that the salaries are too big. With that salary logic the third movie is SURELY going to increase in budget unless stars agree to take pay-cuts. With the WW total this one will barely get even IMO, but let's see how much it makes, I see $150m OS and $70m domestic for $230m WW so it will barely be even from its theatrical run. If they go with the third they will have to depend on TV rights to get their money something the studios will not be happy about I am sure specially relatively smaller one like Lionsgate.