Sylvester Stallone is the mastermind behind The Expendables franchise, and it may surprise fans to know how much he was paid for producing the four films as well as starring in them as mercenary Barney Ross. Stallone reignited interest in the action movie stars of the ’80s and ’90s by getting actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, and others together to collaborate as an elite special forces team. Filled with over-the-top action sequences, hilarious one-liners, and inside jokes about all the real people who inspire The Expendables characters as well as the actors themselves who have each headlined franchises in their heydays.
The Expendables 4 will be Stallone’s final film in the franchise, after which it will be led by Jason Statham as Lee Christmas. It’s possible that Sly will remain attached to the franchise as a producer, which can only add to his net worth if future films prove to be as successful. There’s no denying however that the inclusion of Stallone in the mix with the rest of the larger-than-life personalities, often as the straight person for the more comical of The Expendables characters, has been one of the reasons that the movies have been so successful.
Sylvester Stallone Made $51 Million For The Expendables Movies
Stallone co-wrote, produced, and starred in the first three Expendables films, and received about $16 million a piece for them, totaling about $48 million (via Parade), while for The Expendables 4 he had a much smaller role and took a salary of $3 million. Each film had production costs of roughly $80-$100 million a piece and earned $214 million – $314 million at the box office. Pals like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared in The Expendables for about $10 million, and Harrison Ford in The Expendables 3 for about $7 million, contributed to the who’s who feeling of childhood heroes sharing in the same adventure.
Had Stallone made the films at the stars’ height of popularity back in the ’80s and ’90s, they would have easily cost $200 million in actor fees alone. Given that Stallone at one time commanded $20 – $30 million dollars for films like Rocky IV and Rambo II: First Blood Part II, which was on par with actors like Willis who commanded salaries of $25 million for Die Hard, the cost of getting the leaders of Hollywood action films together prevented this sort of movie from happening.
What Sylvester Stallone’s Current Net Worth Is
Stallone’s current net worth is somewhere around $400 million (via Celebrity Net Worth). In addition to everything he’s contributed to The Expendables movies, he co-wrote and directed four Rocky films, and currently stars in two popular television series, Tulsa King and The Family Stallone. Considering he was only paid $35,000 for the first Rocky movie and between $3.5 and $7 million for the first Rambo, Sly is making a respectable amount of money for an actor working in his ’70s given that his biggest films like Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II grossed $300 million, whose movies have grossed $4.5 billion worldwide.
Seeing Barney Ross with the rest of The Expendables 4 characters together for one last foray will be bittersweet knowing that his time with the crew is at an end. No doubt Stallone will have some creative involvement with it, particularly since he’s been actively fighting for the rights to Rocky for years, but he has more creative projects to look forward to as he bids goodbye to one that has proven financially rewarding. Stallone has the distinction of being the only American actor to have starred in box office number one films in six consecutive decades.