With his legendary character Rambo finally retired after Rambo: Last Blood, Sylvester Stallone will start filming his next movie, Samaritan, next year.
This movie will be the first project for his own studio, Balboa Productions.
According to Deadline, the movie will be a thriller where a young boy searches for a mythic superhero, Stallone, who disappeared after a tragic event 20 years ago.
This appears to be an original movie concept, not based on anything already existing as a comic franchise as has been done by Marvel and DC.
Julius Avery, director of Overlord, has been signed to direct Stallone’s movie.
Bragi F. Schut, screenwriter of Escape Room, will be both screenwriter and executive producer.
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Although Sylvester Stallone is an icon of Hollywood, the question is always:
“Does he still draw an audience?”
| Title | Date | Worldwide Box (Millions) |
| Creed II | 11/21/18 | $214.1 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 |
5/5/17 | $863.8 |
| Creed | 11/25/15 | $173.6 |
| The Expendables 3 | 8/15/14 | $214.7 |
| Grudge Match | 12/25/13 | $44.9 |
| Escape Plan | 10/18/13 | $137.3 |
| Bullet to the Head | 2/1/13 | $9.5 |
| The Expendables 2 | 8/17/12 | $315.0 |
Using figures from Box Office Mojo, the seven live-action movies Stallone has appeared in since 2012 neglecting The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, a Marvel movie was not relying on Stallone’s star power to attract customers, and Bullet to the Head, which did not receive a worldwide release, have averaged $157.1 hundred million in worldwide ticket sales.
Considering the major selling point of those movies was that Stallone was in them, that is not a bad box office result.
So yes, I do believe that Stallone’s Samaritan can be successful.
They will have to be careful with their budgeting. This is not a Marvel or DC movie with a built-in audience. This is more akin to Brightburn which made $32.9 million worldwide. Of course, being made on a budget of just $6 million, Brightburn was a financial success.
We can be certain that with Stallone on the marquee this movie will receive a better reception than Brightburn did. We also have a potential audience primed to go and see superhero movies.
I can see Samaritan bringing in between $150 and $200 million, so, if they can keep their budget at around $30 to $40 million, it will make money.
Given his age, I don’t think Stallone intends to build a franchise around this character so it won’t have to justify a sequel.
I intend to go and see Samaritan when it comes out. How say you?
