How Cop Land Nearly Ended Stallone’s Hollywood Run

There’s something to be said for remembering stars at their best. For many, Sylvester Stallone is forever the tough-as-nails bloke from the late ‘70s and ‘80s, when he was churning out action hits and writing his own ticket in Hollywood. He wasn’t just another muscle-bound hero—he had the smarts to back it up, going from bit parts and knockbacks to penning the first draft of Rocky after watching a Muhammad Ali bout. That underdog boxing film didn’t just launch his career; it picked up a swag of Oscar nods and set him up for a run of blockbusters like Rambo, Cobra, and Escape to Victory.

Back then, Stallone was right up there with the likes of Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. The pair even had a bit of a rivalry, taking the mickey out of each other in the press and trying to outdo one another with bigger stunts and more on-screen carnage. By the end of it, they were opening Planet Hollywood with Bruce Willis, cashing in on their action hero status. Sequels came thick and fast—Rocky II, III, IV, and a trio of Rambo flicks all pulled in big numbers. Even through the ‘90s, despite a few duds like Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, he kept the momentum going with hits like Demolition Man and Cliffhanger.

Cop Land: A Change of Pace

Then came 1997, and with it, a shift. Cop Land saw Stallone take on a role that acknowledged he’d been around the traps for a while. Playing a small-town sheriff in New Jersey, he went toe-to-toe with heavyweights like Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. The film was well received, and punters praised Stallone for showing a different side—more subdued, letting De Niro take the spotlight. But the aftermath wasn’t what he’d hoped for. Casting agents started to reckon he’d lost his leading man edge.

He later told AARP,

“Nobody wanted me after Cop Land. Even my agents. I was fired from CAA (Agency). My personal manager at the time let me go. He said, ‘I can’t do anything for you. Nobody really wants you anymore.’ And I go, ‘How’d this happen?’… I was told these studios feel as though you’re not what you were. Time has passed. Your genre is over. For almost a decade, I couldn’t find work.”

Years in the Wilderness

For nearly ten years, Stallone couldn’t catch a break. He popped up in a lacklustre remake of Get Carter and played a baddie in Spy Kids 3D, but nothing really stuck. The roles dried up, and the industry seemed to have moved on. It was a rough patch for someone who’d once been the king of the box office.

Eventually, he decided to return to familiar ground. He explained,

“I wanted to go back to Rocky – I thought, Let me try one more, because that was my safe place. But there I am, 60 years old, and the previous one, Rocky V, was an abject failure, so the original producers didn’t want to do the sixth film. They said, basically, ‘Over our dead bodies.’ Even my wife was going, ‘I don’t know if it’s such a good idea.’”

Back in the Ring

Ignoring the doubters, Stallone pressed on. Rocky Balboa hit screens in 2006 and turned out to be a winner, both with critics and at the box office. He wrote, starred in, and directed the film, which raked in over $150 million on a modest budget. The comeback put him back in favour with fans and opened the door for another Rambo outing, which also did well. Soon after, he rounded up a crew of action legends for The Expendables, kicking off a new franchise that ran through the 2010s.