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This will go into a few spoilers, so if you haven’t seen The Losers then don’t worry. I imagine there’s a good chance you’ve already seen something like it.

Based on a comic book by Andy Diggle and Jock, The Losers is an insanely-paced hip action comedy. The first 10 minutes involves a shootout, explosions and a charred teddy bear. Dark Castle put up the production cost of $25 million while Warner Bros. distributed and marketed the film. Surely this one would be money in the bank, right?

The Losers opens with an elite special-forces team on a mission in Bolivia. Led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who throughout the film is incapable of doing up the top button on his shirt), he is joined by Jensen (Chris Evans), the tech expert; Cougar (Óscar Jaenada), an ace sniper; Pooch (Columbus Short), responsible for transport and heavy weapons, and Roque (Idris Elba), an all-round tactical and demolitions pro. They go in to destroy a drug cartel and his base of operations only to be betrayed by their mysterious employer, simply referred to as Max (Jason Patric), who orders an air strike to kill the men. They survive but fake their own deaths and are left stranded in Bolivia. Plotting revenge, Clay is approached by the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana). Not only does she know who he is, but she also explains that she can help them take out Max.

As a comic book adaptation where the heroes have no kind of special powers, The Losers is very much grounded in reality (or some sort of hyper reality). I guess the closest comparison here for a best case scenario (that being a successful comic book adaptation that does not fit the mould of sci-fi-action-fantasy), would be Road to Perdition, which earned over $100 million in the US and a further $76 million overseas.

Adapted for the screen by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt, it was directed by Sylvain White (of Stomp the Yard). White revealed that he was drawn to The Losers because it isn’t superheroes. “It’s a regular crew of guys going through extraordinary circumstances,” he said. The comic book is known for being very hard, violent and mildly political. The edginess of the comics was dumbed down to a PG-13 film (interestingly a decision by White, not Dark Castle), which in turn should have made it more accessible to the teens. Another interesting change was the character Aisha, who is an Afghan in the comics; something completely removed in the film.

The Losers opened on April 23, 2010 and earned an opening weekend total of $9.4 million, placing it at #4 at the US box office (the #1 film that weekend was How to Train Your Dragon, in its fifth week of release). It was a low box office weekend overall, one of the few in 2010 where the top 12 films failed to pull in over $100 million.

According to Warner’s vice president of distribution, Jeff Goldstein, the film had attracted the largely male dominated audience they were hoping for (60% male, 64% of them under 35). “They shoot people and watch things blow up,” said Goldstein. “It's what guys of any age like.” Clearly an expert in what guys like, he added, “We think we'll get people in over the next couple of weeks and should be fine. It should have a good life in home video, too.” He then added that he expected the film to drop 45% the following week (it actually dropped 37% to $5.8 million). Goldstein’s words were just plain weird. After the low opening he probably just wanted to be done with the film.

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