Sylvester Stallone and a large portion of his cast from The Expendables 3, including Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Arnold Schwarzenegger, hit the Croisette in Southern France to promote the film at the Cannes Film Festival.
The first two movies in the series have been hugely successful, grossing $188 million in North America and $580 million globally, so a third chapter was to be expected. Unlike the first two movies, Lionsgate is releasing The Expendables 3 with a PG-13 rating and when asked about it at the event, Stallone explained, “We want to reach as many people as possible. It’s very close to an R, believe me, it’s right there. But I think we owe it to the next generation. We thought we’d join that club for a while.”
Granted, lowering the rating does give a good chance for teens to discover the great action stars of yesteryear with whom many of their older brothers and fathers grew up, but in the past, franchises like Bruce Willis’ “Die Hard” movies, which were later softened to a PG-13 rating, slowly started losing their audience. (Ironically, Willis bailed out of appearing in the third “Expendables” movies due to money issues.)
The Expendables 3 is due out on August 15.
