Netflix’s Arnold sees Schwarzenegger’s biggest box office rival Sylvester Stallone concede that Arnie emerged as the winner. Arnold covers the three big stages of his life; bodybuilding, acting and becoming Governor of California. The doc also gives unique insights into Arnie’s time as a movie star, including how he felt his career peaked with Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s success and the way his heart surgery impacted how studios looked upon him. Arnold also gives both his and Sly Stallone’s views on their famous feud.
Throughout the ’80s and most of the ’90s, Arnie and Sly were two of the biggest action movie stars in the world. Arnie’s Terminator and Stallone’s Rambo movies were huge, and it felt like with each movie, they were trying to outdo each other in terms of physique, explosions, bodycount or one-liners. Their particular brand of action movies began to wane in popularity, and after many years of mutual dislike, they later became close friends.
Sylvester Stallone Admits Schwarzenegger Won Their Box Office Battle In Netflix’s Arnold Docuseries
Netflix’s Arnold explores the Schwarzenegger/Stallone feud during the second episode. Arnie states that he “always needed an enemy” to push himself to new heights, and he found that in Stallone. By the time he became a star after The Terminator, he felt Stallone was already way ahead and that he had to “catch up.” Then it became an arms race on both their parts to outdo the other. Stallone became irritated that Arnie was “superior”; whereas he played characters like Rambo who got hurt or wounded, Arnie always seemed to come out on top with no real injuries to show for it.
Decades on from the Schwarzenegger/Stallone box-office battle, the latter now admits that Arnie “got there” in his attempts to be number one. Indeed, many of Arnold’s movies outgrossed Stallone’s, with Terminator 2 taking in over $500 million worldwide in 1991, whereas even Sly’s successes during the same era like Cliffhanger took in about half of that. Obviously, that’s still an incredible result, but it displays just how unstoppable Arnie became at the height of his fame. That fact Stallone is willing to admit that in Netflix’s Arnold shows they’ve both come a long way.
How Arnold Schwarzenegger & Sylvester Stallone Became Friends
The early 2000s saw Schwarzenegger move into politics while Stallone found his acting career going through a fallow period, which he only broke out of with Rocky Balboa and Rambo. It was during this period that Arnold and Stallone realized that – free from their former rivalry – they actually shared a lot in common. They’ve been good friends ever since as Arnold shows, and in the 2010s, there were four Schwarzenegger/Stallone movies in quick succession, including The Expendables series and Escape Plan.
