10 Movies That Totally Misunderstood Their Audience

10. The Expendables 3

The first two Expendables movies proved to be solid box office hits because they gave the target audience precisely what they wanted: a bevy of legendary action heroes teaming up to kick ass and take names - with an R-rating, no less.

Yet shortly before the release of The Expendables 3, star Sylvester Stallone revealed that the threequel would be rated PG-13 in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience.

Reading between the lines, it felt like Stallone and the series' producers wanted to try and transform The Expendables into a more lucrative tentpole franchise on the level of, say, the Fast and the Furious.

They figured that by giving The Expendables 3 a more family-friendly audience rating and padding the supporting cast with younger heroes led by Ronda Rousey, the series could become even more of a success.

But what a miscalculation that turned out to be. For one, fans of the first two movies were totally alienated by the neutered, mostly bloodless action sequences, and secondly, young people couldn't give a damn about The Expendables. A PG-13 rating and young sidekicks did nothing to change that.

As a result, the threequel was a considerable box office disappointment, with Stallone later admitting that the PG-13 rating was a massive mistake.

Thankfully Stallone has promised fans that the upcoming fourth film will be back to R-rated business as usual. Whether audiences will still turn up for it after so many years have passed, though, remains to be seen.