The Expendables franchise was never meant to bring the actors (or directors, or producers, for that matter) any accolades - it was pure fun, a throwback to the "˜80's and the "˜90's, when it was pretty clear who the heroes and who the villains were. Stallone's idea was to unite all the genre actors of those decades and put them together in a single movie - and the first Expendables film was a success, while the second one just a moderate hit.
So what happened to The Expendables 3, who made only $39 million at the US box-office?
Sylvester Stallone has an answer for that. According to him, the main problem was not the story (because, frankly, these movies aren't about this, but about all the testosterone), but the rating of the movie. You can't expect for an action movie with all these action stars to be a hit when it has only a PG-13 rating.
Stallone said: "I believe it was a horrible miscalculation on everyone's part in trying to reach a wider audience, but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects." And this is a lesson to be learned by all the film producers - the success of a film isn't solely based on its rating.
So why didn't they make it R-rated?
Stallone also said that it was difficult making The Expendables 3 an R-rated film, because it would have seemed unbelievable for the audiences. In other words, he said that at least a main character needed to die in order to make such a rating believable.
Stallone also said that he enjoys his violence (in the movies, of course) as graphic as possible. However, this would have also diminished the humor of the film - in other words, maybe, the one-liners wouldn't have worked so well.
Where to go now?
For The Expendables 4, Stallone has in mind to make it an R-rated one, which is always a good idea, especially when considering a franchise such as this one. An example can be made with Rambo (2008), who is by far the second best one in the series.
Furthermore, Stallone has in mind of changing the genre of the film for a bit. In other words, it won't be the usual action vehicle: "I have actually entertained the idea of putting the group into such an unnatural environment that it, in an of itself, creates extra suspense and tension: the "˜fish out of water' scenario. That environment might not be time travel, but nearly just as jarring."
So"¦ science-fiction?
