After a good seven years in production hell, it was finally officially announced in 2021 that a fourth part of the Expendables series would be filmed. The long wait for fans of Sylvester Stallone & Co. was certainly no coincidence. After The Expendables 3 came out in 2014, disappointed the action blockbuster compared to its predecessors at the box office.
The third part made some mistakes and alienated many fans. Also called Sylvester Stallone himself a crucial change as a big mistakewhich should never be repeated.
The Expendables 3 has disappointed with younger stars and tamer violence
In addition to the cult heroes of the 80s action cinema, The Expendables 3 were also new, younger stars like Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell and Victor Ortiz. In no scene, however, could the youngsters keep up with the charisma of the well-rehearsed team of stars like Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren or Wesley Snipes.
Check out our interviews with the Expendables 3 stars here:
Interview Expendables 3
Arguably The Expendables 3’s biggest flaw, however, concerned a hallmark of the series. After the higher R rating of parts 1 and 2, the action of the third part was for a lower PG-13 rating much bloodless as well as tamer staged and above all cut.
Although this was intended to attract an even larger audience to the cinema, this move had the opposite effect and turned off fans of heavier, old-school action. As Cinema Blend reports, Stallone described the lower age rating as a clear mistake in an interview with Crave Online a few years ago:
I think it was a terrible miscalculation by everyone to reach a wider audience but thereby reduce the violence that audiences expect. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen again.
After the theatrical release, there was one for home cinema uncut DVD and Blu-ray version released with FSK 18 rating, which runs almost 6 minutes longer. You can get this version at Amazon, for example.*
But not much could be saved. Even though The Expendables 3 wasn’t a total flop, the $100 million action blockbuster grossed over $214 million worldwide. With that he has the least well-rehearsed from the trilogyafter part 2 brought in an additional $100 million with the same budget.
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Do you think The Expendables 3 is worse than its predecessors?