6 Ways Stallone Is Better Than Schwarzenegger (And 6 Ways He's Not)

Two names stand above all others in the annals of all-time action stars — Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In one corner, there's the ultimate underdog from Hell's Kitchen, New York, whose dreams of big-screen stardom were dashed until he went the distance and wrote his most famous part for himself: the "Italian Stallion" Rocky Balboa. In the other corner, we've got the Austrian-born American Dream, a man who parlayed his unprecedented success in the sport of bodybuilding into an improbable career as a Hollywood leading man and an even more unlikely tenure as the governor (ahem, the Governator) of America's most populous state. 

Both men are icons whose careers started very differently, but they followed remarkably similar paths. For decades, fans have asked one question: Who is better — Stallone or Schwarzenegger? It's a simple question but without an easy answer. We looked at the tale of the tape to compare and contrast the two cinematic titans ... but the final decision rests with you. Here are six ways Stallone is better than Schwarzenegger and six ways he's not!

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 his action movie contemporary, Schwarzenegger, does not. In fact, Stallone has achieved the pinnacle of Hollywood's artistic accomplishments — the Academy Award ... sort of. 

Stallone has been nominated for the Academy Awards three times – for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for Rocky in 1977 (he was also nominated for the Golden Globes and BAFTAs) and for Best Supporting Actor for Creed in 2016 (which won him the Golden Globe). 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 lost Best Actor to Peter Finch and Best Screenplay to Paddy Chayefsky in 1977 (both for Network) and Best Supporting Actor to Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies in 2016, his brainchild, Rocky, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Schwarzenegger's most prestigious acting award? A Golden Globe for Best Debut for Stay Hungry in 1977. When it comes to winning gold, Stallone is the clear winner.

Arnold Schwarzenegger can't stay still. He's conquered bodybuilding, Hollywood, and California politics. In contrast, Stallone is way more focused on succeeding on the silver screen, and it's paid off. While Arnie is a bona fide movie star, no doubt, he's not the most talented actor (hot take, right?). However, he's never needed to be, as his screen presence is powered by sheer charisma. Stallone possesses the same cinematic magnetism, but he's also a great actor. 

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 (before John Rambo descended into caricature), and he even stole the show from Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta in James Mangold's criminally underseen Cop Land. Stallone is also accomplished off-camera, having screenplay credits on more than 25 TV shows or movies, and he's directed eight movies. 

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.

Star power is hard to quantify or, for that matter, to 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 clear: 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.

You can compare Stallone and Schwarzenegger 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 star Schwarzenegger, while the last film, Terminator: Dark Fate, bombed big time, which no Rocky or Rambo movie ever has. To be honest, though, the franchise has been on creative life support since the 1991 masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day. What about the other iconic qualities? While The Terminator series has "I'll be back" and "hasta la vista, baby," the Rocky series has more memorable quotes than we can list, and Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" easily top The Terminator theme. Besides, Rocky is so iconic that they built a freaking statue of him. Not many movie characters can claim that.

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, 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 (about $1 million per day) 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 (that would be 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.

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. Perhaps the most famous is the positioning on The Towering Inferno's poster, where Steve McQueen's name was first, but Paul Newman's name was higher. There was no need for such trickery when it came to two of the biggest action movie stars of all time, for 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.