AGING SCHWARZENEGGER AND STALLONE FACE BOX OFFICE TROUBLE

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone

Earlier this year, a scary thing happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone: They became expendable for audiences, at least when starring in movies not called "The Expendables."

Schwarzengger, 65, back in front of the camera in a leading role for the first time since 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" weathered his worst opening in 27 years with "The Last Stand." The action film earned just over $12 million overall, a tally even lower than Schwarzenegger's much-maligned 1996 flop "Jingle All The Way" grossed during its opening weekend. Stallone, 66, didn't fare much better with "Bullet to the Head," which earned just $9.4 million at the North American box office,roughly three times less than the Stallone bomb "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" pulled down in 1992. Added together, "The Last Stand" and "Bullet to the Head" totaled $21 million in North America, a far cry from the $85 million the pair earned together in "The Expendables 2" last August.

Even fellow "Expendables" cast member Bruce Willis, 58, an A-list star who made a career balancing blockbusters like "Armageddon" with indie releases like "Moonrise Kingdom," stumbled this year. Willis' fifth "Die Hard" film, "A Good Day To Die Hard," grossed just $24 million during its opening salvo; overall, the film has earned only $66 million in North America thus far, about half of what the last "Die Hard," "Live Free or Die Hard," grabbed from ticket buyers in 2007. (Willis still has muscles overseas; "A Good Day To Die Hard," which takes place in Russia, has earned $219 million in foreign ticket sales.)