Expendables 3 Cast: Box Office Hits/Performance By Rating

So it seems that The Expendables 3 will be rated PG-13, even though they seem to have shot an R-Rated movie on the ground.  We all know this does not make sense as far as viewership and demographics are concerned, making sense in terms of gluttony is another matter.  People don’t go to see these movies for their riveting storylines, it’s all about the cast.  And people don’t seem to want to see this cast in family movies.  Let’s look at how many successes each have had, movies actually rated PG-13 vs R.

Sylvester Stallone
Rated-R Hits: 12
PG-13 Hits: 4
Stallone is almost the archetypical Rated-R action man, so it’s sad to see that he’s colluding with Avi Lerner to go against the grain.  You’d think that Stallone, who has grossed over 2.2 billion in Rated-R movies would never have pulled this sorry shit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rated-R Hits: 12
PG-13 Hits:  5
Schwarzenegger is almost in the same boat as Stallone, forging a career through violence, grossing a staggering 3.21 billion under that rating.  All but one of Arnie’s movies have been Rated-R since 1997.  Arnold’s fans are grown ups.  Fact.

Jason Statham
Rated-R Hits: 5
PG-13 Hits: 4
Statham’s resume is a much closer call with only five R hits next to 4 PG-13 hits.  Yet even despite that Statham is hardly known as a family friendly actor.  He was almost the only ‘new’ full blown oldschool action star of the ’00s.

The GOAT
Rated-R Hits: 12
PG-13 Hits: 5
The greatest of all time who does not even need to be named, would probably lead this list in terms outright R hits had it not been for career assassination.  He also holds the distinction of being the first on this list to be in an R actioner – Mad Max, way back in 1979.

Wesley Snipes
Rated-R Hits: 6
PG-13 Hits: 1
Snipes movies clearly speak for themselves, six Rated-R hit movies for every PG-13 hit movie.  U.S. Marshalls was the only PG-13 movie that sold well with him, but even then that’s hardly a family movie.  It was a grown up movie that just happened to escape the ‘R’.

Antonio Banderas
Rated-R Hits: 2
PG-13 Hits: 11
Banderas really lets the side down here and, quite frankly, doesn’t belong.  A mere two Rated-R hits next to a litany of PG-13 romantic slop, Shrek movies and other shit generally targeted at women and children.  Stallone said his casting came about by a random chat on the street.  Just casting a buddy?

Harrison Ford
Rated-R Hits: 2
PG-13 Hits: 8
Harrison Ford is another man who quite frankly almost borders on Expendables antithesis.  Eight PG-13 hits, even more if you count Star Wars which pre-dates the rating.  This would’ve been different if Willis has been cast, as was the original intention.

Jet Li
Rated-R Hits: 8
PG-13 Hits: 1
With the most contrasting ratio of R/PG-13, put simply, Jet Li does not do PG-13.  This list of R movies is probably even higher if one were to sit down and argue the merits of all of his Chinese hits, only his outright Chinese successes were called upon here.

Dolph Lundgren
Rated-R Hits: 3
PG-13 Hits: 1
Lundgren has had few theatrical hits.  But most of those have been Rated-R.  Even then, Lundgren is a popular draw on the DTV market and his resume in that regard is even more exclusively ‘R’.  Dolph Lundren will most likely never appear in a theatrical PG-13 movie again.  Oh, wait…