10 Actors Who Blamed Themselves For Films Failing

After the first two Expendables movies posted solid takings at the box office - and let's be honest, reviews don't much matter in a series like this - there seemed to be no reason to expect any different from the threequel.

But then the decision was made to make The Expendables 3 a PG-13 rated action movie in an attempt to widen the series' commercial prospects, the producers and series creator-star Stallone seemingly forgetting that the R-rated brutality was very much the appeal of the films.

In addition to this, the supporting cast was padded out with younger up-and-comers the audience had no interest in, and a high-quality screener of the film was also leaked online weeks prior to release.

This all conspired to ensure the threequel's box office fell far short of its predecessors, and it also received the worst reviews of the trilogy, effectively pumping the brakes on the entire franchise until just recently.

In an interview shortly after the film's release, Stallone confirmed that the PG-13 rating was primarily responsible for the critical and commercial decline, admitting that he and the producers got it wrong:

"I believe it was a horrible miscalculation on everyone's part in trying to reach a wider audience, but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects... I'm quite certain it won't happen again... The idea with PG-13, we wanted to hit a broad audience and because of our predecessors, looking at the Bournes and James Bonds, we thought they're pretty violent films."

Given that Stallone has co-written all three movies, directed the first, and is effectively the figurehead of the entire franchise, it's fair to say that he has a massive heft of sway when putting these films together.

And so, it's apt that he should shoulder the blame for not pushing back against the sanitised content rating. Hopefully the soon-to-begin-filming Expendables 4 will indeed be R-rated as promised.