They popularized action movies in the 80s, big muscular dude mowing down people.
Previous action stars like Charles Bronson never looked like Arnie or Sly. But not sure if they invented the genre, just changed it a bit
I don't necessarily disagree that they did invent a sub-genre of action movies, though. I don't think he necessarily means he just invented action movies in general, but maybe a specific sub-genre where there's pretty much no purpose to the movie but shit blowing up and big special effects.
But no one is going to their movies. That's the problem.
These are the last five movies Stallone has released:
2006: Rocky Balboa as Rocky Balboa
2008: Rambo as John Rambo
2010: The Expendables as Barney Ross
2012: The Expendables 2 as Barney Ross
2013: Bullet to the Head as Jimmy Bobo
One of these movies has a -$30MM box office and the rest of them are up by a combined ~half billion. I think you're speaking for yourself.