The recent box office success of A Working Man proves there is something magical when Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone join forces. Stallone laid the groundwork for mindless action entertainment in the ‘80s with the Rambo franchise and Statham picked up the baton during the 2000s by showcasing his dazzling combat skills in The Transporter and Crank. Now it has been 15 years since the two stars first collaborated on The Expendables and, since then, Stallone has found a worthy successor in Statham.
Since the original Rocky in 1976, Stallone has been instrumental in the writing process of most of his biggest hits as an actor. Before working with Statham on The Expendables, however, he only sat behind the scenes one time as writer and director for John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever sequel, Staying Alive. Stallone took what began as an R-rated depiction of a disco king’s Brooklyn upbringing and followed it up with a Rocky-esque PG tale about making it on Broadway. The Saturday Night Fever sequel would gross significantly less than its iconic predecessor and no further collaborations between Stallone and Travolta followed. In working with Statham, however, Stallone found an actor star with a dramatic range similar to his prime years as a major box office draw.
‘A Working Man’ Avoids Being Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone’s Lowest-Grossing Movie Together
As a screenwriter, Stallone translated the loner war veteran status of Rambo into Statham’s Levon Cade in A Working Man. The David Ayer-helmed thriller, based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel Levon’s Trade, follows an ex-Marine-turned-Chicago construction foreman out to save the daughter of his employer (Michael Peña) from the Russian mob. Since its release in March, the latest Statham and Stallone effort has paid off with its current $97 million worldwide gross on a $40 million budget. Though it is still well below the $162 million of Statham’s previous smash hit, The Beekeeper, also directed by Ayer, A Working Man’s box office haul will avoid a disastrous record of being the lowest-grossing joint effort of the British-born badass and the legendary Rambo star.
A Working Man’s success is significant because it has been nearly a decade since Statham and Stallone had a hit movie together. Following the success of The Expendables in 2010, they quickly joined forces again for 2012’s The Expendables 2, their biggest hit to date. With an expanded cast of action movie icons including Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris in the mix, the epic sequel amassed an impressive $315 million worldwide, which was higher than the original’s $274 million gross. Since then, it’s been on a downward trajectory, starting with The Expendables 3 in 2014. Between its PG-13 rating and a screener copy leaked online weeks before release, the third installment dropped to $214 million worldwide. But this is far from being the worst of either Statham or Stallone’s track records in theaters.
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The first time Stallone wrote and did not star in a vehicle for Statham was in 2013’s Homefront, the tale of a retired DEA agent and his daughter settling into a new life in Louisiana when trouble arises with a local crystal meth dealer. Though it was originally intended as a starring project for Stallone, he was impressed enough with Statham’s work in The Expendables movies to pass the role of Phil Broker along to him. Met with mixed reviews with a 42% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Homefront only made $51.7 million worldwide. The worst was yet to come.
The film that maintains the record of Statham and Stallone’s lowest-grossing project together is 2023’s Expendables 4. The last installment of the long-running action franchise was supposed to be the torch-passing moment between Stallone’s Barney Ross and Statham’s Lee Christmas on a mission to prevent World War III. Though it returned to the franchise’s standard R-rating, the lack of action star power, weak premise, and darker tone proved costly with a lackluster $51.1 million gross on a $100 million budget.
The success of A Working Man plays into why Statham and Stallone work off each other so well on screen and off. Statham explained to Collider in 2023 how he and Stallone often go so hard to suspend the audience’s disbelief that it hurts: “You know, I’m nursing a lot of bad injuries,” Statham said. “Stallone in himself. He’s got a roadmap of injuries throughout his career. A lot of the things we do, it’s because our ego gets in front of us, and we want it to be authentic. We want people to see that that’s us doing it. We want the audience to go for the ride.” With A Working Man avoiding another box office stumble, it’s clear that Statham and Stallone’s partnership still has plenty of firepower left — both on screen and off.
