This month Sylvester Stallone has been looking forwards and backwards when it comes to The Expendables.
Interviewed by CraveOnline, Stallone admitted that the decision to go for a PG-13 rating for the most recent outing had proven to be a massive mistake. "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," Stallone told them. "I’m quite certain it won’t happen again."
The film which did not set the box-office alight was largely panned by mainstream critics and even Impact noted its diluted story and reliance on over-the-top action sequences presented in bloodless and almost 'A-Team' like fashion. The release was also not helped by the leaking of the film in high-definition quality around July 25th - a week or so before its cinema release. It is estimated it was downloaded over ten million times, demonstrably affecting its box-office take to some extent.
The distributor, Lionsgate, did not merely shrug off the piracy but actively went after the culprits. As a result two men were arrested this week in the north of England on suspicion of stealing and distributing the film online.
Detective chief inspector Danny Medlycott of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit said in a statement to the BBC that: "Today's operation shows you the significant impact intellectual property crime has on our creative industries, with millions of pounds being lost as a result of criminal actions.”