‘The Expendables 3’ Lawsuit: Lionsgate Wants To Settle

The Expendables 3 famously leaked online ahead of the film’s theatrical release in the United States. Not surprisingly, Lionsgate didn’t hesitate to file a lawsuit against some of the torrent sites offering flick for download.

Although it’s unknown if the leak or the terrible reviews worked against the sequel, The Expendables 3 didn’t enjoy a lucrative adventure through the box office during its first three days of release. The Inquisitr previously reported that the latest — and possibly final — installment only scraped together $16 million last weekend. That’s definitely not the sort of figure Lionsgate was hoping to generate.

Not surprisingly, some industry analysts firmly believes that The Expendables 3 suffered at the hands of torrent users who decided to illegally download the movie for free. After all, why hand over a considerable amount of your spare change for a movie ticket when you can see the action flick for free? In other words, don’t expect the understandably angry distributor to cut these torrent sits any slack in the near future.

However, Torrent Freak reports that Lionsgate is willing to drop the lawsuit against one of the sites offering The Expendables 3 for download if they cough up some serious cash. Instead of dragging the defendants through a lengthy — and costly — court battle, the studio is willing to accept a hefty check for the damage done.

However, the website wonders if the parties can afford what Lionsgate wants.

“Whether Lionsgate is serious about settling or whether it merely wants to know more about the identity of Limetorrents’ operator remains anyone’s guess. It’s very unlikely that the movie studio will settle for anything short of a few million dollars in damages, something the torrent site owner can’t afford. So for now, this means that the lawsuit is destined to drag on.”

The Expendables 3 star Sylvester Stallone has a lot to lose if the movie doesn’t perform at the box office. While it’s unknown if he wanted to put together another entry in the series, chances are producers will think twice before bankrolling a sequel if the franchise is currently on a steady decline at the box office.

Stallone, of course, was very upset about the leak.

“That makes me feel really sad, but you know I understand that a lot of people have accepted that’s kind of a way of life. I think it’s unfortunate because it isn’t about me, i’m ok, but there’s thousands of people that won’t make movies. They won’t get a chance because they’ve lost a lot of money, that’s the trouble.”

At last count, Variety explains that The Expendables 3 was illegally downloaded approximately five million times. Chances are that number will continue to grow before the film finally explodes onto home video.

[Lead image via Lionsgate]