Two names stand above all others in the annals of all-time action stars — Sylvester Stallone
and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Both men are icons whose careers started very differently, but ended up following remarkably
similar paths.
It's no easy task deciding who's ultimately better, but we're going to try.
This titanic battle wouldn't be so tough to call if Stallone and Schwarzenegger didn't
have so much in common.
For starters, each guy headlined some of the best action movies of their era.
They also played some of the most famous characters in film.
For Stallone, there's perpetual underdog boxer Rocky Balboa and the PTSD-stricken, one-man
army John Rambo.
For Schwarzenegger, there's the killer robot from the future, the T-800 from The Terminator
franchise, the Predator-killing Major Dutch, and the sword-wielding Conan the Barbarian.
Given their similarities, it's no wonder they had a heated public rivalry for years.
From Schwarzenegger throwing shade in movies like Twins and to Stallone literally throwing
a giant bowl of flowers at Arnold during the Golden Globes, it's clear that during their
heydays, the two couldn't stand each other.
While they're friends today, you better believe their rivalry still exists low-key.
Sylvester Stallone is mostly associated with shoot-'em-up, one-man army action movies,
which even at their best have never really been associated with high art.
Nevertheless, Stallone does boast artistic bona fides that Schwarzenegger does not.
In fact, Stallone has achieved the pinnacle of Hollywood's artistic accomplishments — the
Academy Award.
Stallone has been nominated for the Academy Awards three times – for Best Actor and
Best Original Screenplay for Rocky in 1977, and for Best Supporting Actor for Creed in
2016.
This makes him one of only six actors to be nominated more than once for playing the same
character, alongside Cate Blanchett, Paul Newman, and Al Pacino.
While Stallone didn't win Best Actor or Best Screenplay, Rocky ultimately won the Academy
Award for Best Picture.
Though Stallone has Schwarzenegger beat when it comes to cinematic awards, Arnold surely
takes the cake when it comes to non-cinematic awards.
Schwarzenegger is a world-class athlete who's considered one of, if not the, greatest bodybuilders
of all time.
In many ways, he's the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of his sport.
While experts can quibble about who's the best based on this stat or that, nobody can
deny that Schwarzenegger brought more attention to bodybuilding than anybody before or since.
That said, Arnold's career isn't just hype — he truly was the real deal.
From the time he first picked up a barbell back home in Austria at 13 years old to finally
hanging up his speedo in 1980 at the ripe old age of 33, Schwarzenegger won over 20
bodybuilding championships, including three Mr. Universes, and seven Mr. Olympias.
Along the way, he literally wrote the book on bodybuilding, 1977's Arnold: The Education
of a Bodybuilder.
Arnold Schwarzenegger can't stay still.
He's conquered bodybuilding, Hollywood, and California politics.
When it comes to his actual acting skills though, he's never really worked to better
them, as his screen presence is powered by sheer charisma.
"Oh, excuse me.
I forgot to tell you.
This is my ferret."
Stallone not only takes his acting more seriously, but he also has plenty of clout for offscreen
work.
In addition to being nominated for the Academy Award twice for playing Rocky Balboa, he also
delivered a powerful performance as a PTSD-stricken Vietnam vet in First Blood, and he even stole
the show from Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta in James Mangold's criminally
under-appreciated Cop Land.
Stallone is also accomplished off-camera, having screenplay credits on more than 25
TV shows or movies, and directing credits for eight films.
Sure, some of his creative efforts are genuinely horrible -- such as 1983's Saturday Night
Fever sequel Staying Alive, which earned 0% on Rotten Tomatoes -- but hey, even Spielberg
and Scorsese have had duds.
With several Rocky, Rambo, and Expendables films in his oeuvre, Stallone is an accomplished
and bankable action director, with $1.3 billion in global grosses for just eight films.
Besides being one of only a few movie stars who started his career as a world-class athlete,
Schwarzenegger boasts another — arguably even more impressive — accomplishment.
He's one of only three actors to become governor of a state.
Schwarzenegger was elected to succeed the recalled Democrat Gray Davis, serving as the
Republican governor of California from 2003-2011.
Schwarzenegger told The Hollywood Reporter he also would've run for president in 2016,
but he was unable to because the Constitution forbids foreign-born people from serving as
president.
The only other actor-governor left to mention is Schwarzenegger's memorable Predator co-star
Jesse Ventura, who served as governor of Minnesota from 1999-2003.
While Stallone would win our vote if he ran for pretty much anything, only Schwarzenegger
has served as governor of America's most populous state.
Star power is hard to quantify, or even define.
You could be the most talented actor, the most beautiful person, or the most charismatic
performer, but that's no guarantee anybody is going to buy a ticket to watch your movie.
Whatever star power is, you either have it, or you don't.
Stallone and Schwarzenegger both do, in spades.
But who has more?
There's really only one signifier that matters in Hollywood — who's made more money at
the box office.
By that standard, the winner is clearly Stallone.
Stallone's career box office total is $2.8 billion domestic and $6.3 billion worldwide,
beating out Schwarzenegger's career total of $2.1 billion domestic and $5.4 billion
worldwide.
As massive as those numbers are, they're even more impressive when you consider they aren't
adjusted for inflation, as both actor's biggest hits happened more than 25 years ago.
Worth noting, Stallone has been in more movies, 62 films to Schwarzenegger's 44, and Arnold
dropped out of acting while serving as California's governor from 2003-2011.
However, by that point, both actors were past their primes as box office draws, so it's
unlikely Schwarzenegger would've starred in a massive hit during those years.
In fact, his last pre-political role was a supporting part in the Jackie Chan bomb Around
the World in 80 Days.
Though Stallone's box office total beats Schwarzenegger's, Arnold takes the cake when it comes to average
earnings.
Stallone's 62 films have earned an average of $54 million domestically and $112 million
worldwide, while Schwarzenegger's 44 movies have brought home an average of $60 million
domestically and $135 million worldwide.
While both guys found their greatest success playing their marquee characters -- Stallone
with Rocky and Rambo and Schwarzenegger with the T-800, they were also successful in other
roles, proving neither man was a one-hit character wonder.
So, which matters more — totals or averages?
You'll have to ask the accountants at the movie studios about that.
All we can say is that during their commercial peaks, Stallone and Schwarzenegger were money.
You can compare Stallone and Schkwarzenegger on several tangible, measurable fronts -- from
box office results to career accomplishments to the size of their respective pecs and biceps.
But there are some metrics where you have to just go with your heart.
Therefore, we can confidently say that Stallone's most famous characters, Rocky and Rambo, are
more iconic than Schwarzenegger's, the T-800.
This is subjective, but defensible.
For one, Rocky is the winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it spearheaded
an eight-film franchise, including the Creed movies, with $1.5 billion in global box office.
While the Rambo films are less critically acclaimed than Rocky, the five-film franchise
has still earned an impressive $817 million over five films.
Yes, The Terminator franchise has earned more -- $2 billion worldwide over six films -- but
one film, Terminator: Salvation, didn't even star Schwarzenegger, while the last film,
Terminator: Dark Fate, bombed big time.
None of the Rocky or Rambo movies have ever performed poorly -- whether we're talking
about the box office or review scores.
Schwarzenegger's biggest hit outgrossed Stallone's by a pretty substantial margin.
With $204 million domestic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the biggest box office hit
in 1991.
Stallone achieved a similar feat in 1976 when Rocky topped the box office with $117 million,
and he almost did the same thing in 1985 when Rambo: First Blood Part II earned $150 million
and Rocky IV earned $127 million.
Impressive achievements all around, but Stallone's biggest hit -- not adjusted for inflation
-- isn't even a Rocky or Rambo movie.
Excluding his cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Stallone's biggest grosser is the
$311 million worldwide that The Expendables 2 earned in 2012.
Not bad, but still less than $200 million of what T2 earned worldwide 20 years earlier.
Besides, Schwarzenegger also had a prominent role in Stallone's biggest hit, The Expendables
2.
Talk about bragging rights!
Part of being a successful movie star isn't just thriving during the big hits — it's
surviving the big bombs.
One thing we can say for Sylvester Stallone is that he didn't star in one of the most
significant bombs in Hollywood history, Batman & Robin.
Schwarzenegger did, but we doubt he regrets that decision, as he netted a cool $25 million
for playing Mr. Freeze.
We think $25 million for less than one month's work was a worthy price to pay for killing
the Batman franchise, though we doubt Warner Brothers was too pleased with the investment.
Ironically, Batman & Robin is actually not Schwarzenegger's worst movie -- see The Villain,
which earned a horrid 0% Tomatometer score -- but it is his most notorious.
It's also one of the most influential superhero movies of all time, and not in a good way,
as it ended one of the biggest hit franchises ever, the Burton-Schumacher Batman films.
Plus, it sent the Dark Knight into exile until Christopher Nolan brought him back eight years
later in Batman Begins.
Stallone has some stinkers, no doubt, but he's never killed a multi-billion franchise
and still made millions doing it.
As Rocky tells his son in 2006's Rocky Balboa:
"It ain't about how hard you can hit.
It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
How much you can take and keep moving forward."
Make no mistake, moviegoers and critics gave Stallone a stiff right hook to the jaw with
the 1992 comedy Stop!
Or My Mom Will Shoot.
With a 7% critic's score and 21% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and $26.6 million
worldwide, it's Stallone's biggest career misfire.
Yes, with a 4% Tomatometer score, Reach Me is technically his worst movie, but that ensemble
dramedy was a misguided if noble defeat that only saw limited release in 2014.
Stop!
Or My Mom Will Shoot was supposed to be a hit!
What was Stallone thinking?
Turns out, it was Schwarzenegger.
According to a Q&A on Instagram, Stallone claimed Schwarzenegger tricked him into doing
the part by making Stallone think he was interested.
He wasn't, and it's easy to see why.
While Schwarzenegger had success in action-comedies like Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and Jingle All
the Way, Stallone's biggest failure was in trying to beat Arnold at his own game.
Stallone learned the hard way, you don't play politics with Schwarzenegger.
It's one of the most coveted places in all of Hollywood.
More than a table at Musso and Frank's or courtside seats next to Jack Nicholson at
a Los Angeles Lakers home game, it's top billing.
To be listed first above the movie's title is an absolute statement about star power,
and so naturally, it's inspired numerous squabbles among movie stars.
When it comes to our two actors in question, Sylvester Stallone has always gotten top billing
over Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This wasn't a surprise in The Expendables, as Arnold had an uncredited cameo, while Stallone
wrote, directed, and starred in it.
Stallone again got top billing in The Expendables 2 and The Expendables 3, while Arnold got
an "and Schwarzenegger" credit, a respectable position given his minor supporting role.
But in 2013's Escape Plan, with just Stallone and Schwarzenegger as above-the-title leads,
Stallone got top billing.
Sure, the movie bombed with $103 million worldwide on a $70 million budget, but that's beside
the point.
When it comes to billing, Stallone has always come out on top.
We've compared and contrasted Stallone and Schwarzenegger in quite a few ways, but one
important one still remains.
Who would win in a fight?
It may not be the most mature way to settle the debate, but it makes the most sense, given
they're both men whose brands are built on machismo.
If we're being honest, Schwarzenegger would win.
For one, Stallone's billed height of 5'10" is well below Schwarzenegger's 6'2".
And while Stallone is pretty jacked, Schwarzenegger is one of the greatest bodybuilders of all
time.
Additionally, Arnold was known for his size and strength.
Sure, Stallone was Rocky Balboa, but convincingly playing a world-class athlete isn't the same
as being one.
While we'd never want to see them actually fight, if it ever came time to throw hands,
our money's on Arnold.
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