Sylvester Stallone’s $855M Action Franchise Makes Netflix New Streaming Home As Development Begins On Its Future

Sylvester Stallone is keeping one of his franchises alive and kicking, and it's now moving to a new streaming home.

Having kicked off in 2010, The Expendables has centered on Stallone and a roster of high-profile action genre vets as they work as a group of mercenaries facing a variety of foes, also played by genre icons. Created by Dave Callaham and co-starring everyone from Jason Statham to Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Jet Li and Terry Crews, the films have been largely dismissed by critics, though still generally financial hits, having thus far grossed a combined $855 million worldwide.

Now, Netflix is welcoming The Expendables franchise to its platform. Beginning February 20, all four movies will be available to stream in the United States on Netflix. This marks a return to a primary streaming platform for the first three films in the franchise, with the 2012 sequel having been available on YouTube TV, while the 2023-released fourth film has been available on Peacock.

The shift to Netflix comes at the perfect time for the franchise as it was announced in November that Lionsgate had acquired the Expendables rights from Millennium Media. Though not specific, the studio confirmed they had tentative plans to develop new films, TV shows and video games in the Stallone-fronted universe.

Even without specific plans in place yet, Terry Crews confirmed to ScreenRant around the time of Lionsgate's acquisition that he was in talks to return to the Expendables franchise, having been absent from the fourth film. In addition to a general sense of excitement about bringing Hale Caesar back for more explosive stories, he also felt that the film industry's current focus on nostalgia-driven franchises made it the right time to reinvigorate the series.

What will be interesting to see now is how The Expendables franchise ends up performing for Netflix upon its February premiere. The first two installments were generally well-received by audiences, while the third and fourth films were gradually more dismissed. Expendables 4, in particular, became an infamous chapter for the property, earning a franchise-low 14% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and bombing at the box office, grossing just $51 million against its $100 million production budget.

However, if there's one thing Netflix has a trend of doing, it's giving overlooked movies and box office bombs a chance to become a retroactive hit. This is especially true when it comes to the action genre, as everything from the John Cena-led Freelance to the Adam Driver-starring 65 and Madame Web all dominating the platform at various points.

Should The Expendables franchise take off for Netflix upon its premiere, it could give Lionsgate and Stallone the push they need to make the fifth movie happen sooner. Though given Lionsgate is also hard at work on reviving the Rambo franchise with the Noah Centineo-led prequel, which director Jalmari Helander revealed to ScreenRant will begin filming on January 26, and future John Wick projects, they may also elect to take a slow-but-steady approach to bringing Stallone's franchise back.