Sylvester Stallone is the mastermind behind the Expendables franchise, and fans might be surprised by how much he was paid to produce the four films and play mercenary Barney Ross in them. Stallone revived interest in action stars of the 80s and 90s by bringing together actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Json statham and others as an elite special forces team. Filled with amazing action scenes, hilarious one-liners and jokes about all the real people who inspire the characters in The Expendables, as well as the actors themselves, each of whom headlined the franchise during its heyday.The Expendables 4 will be Stallone’s last film in the franchise, followed by Jason Statham as Lee Christmas. It’s possible that Sly will remain attached to the franchise as a producer, which could only increase his net worth if future films prove to be as 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 Bruce 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.
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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:Stallone has the distinction of being the only American actor to have starred in box office number one films in six consecutive decades.