How Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked Sylvester Stallone into a bad movie

Arnold Schwarzenegger takes part in a photocall to promote the documentary film Wonders Of The Sea at the San Sebastian Film Festival, in San Sebastian, Spain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent West - RC13E20D29A0

Before squashing their beef and investing in Planet Hollywood together, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone took their feud to new heights over a movie.

“I’m so glad we straightened out our mess because it wasn’t pretty,” Schwarzenegger told the audience during a Q&A at Beyond Fest 2017 (via Slashfilm). “We were attacking each other in the press relentlessly.”

The two macho men started one-upping each other in every way imaginable, from who had the “biggest gun” to who to who had “less body fat when he goes into production.” “All of this s–t started happening, and it didn’t stop! It was unbelievable,” he said.

Schwarzenegger finally bested his competition when he read the script for 1992 action-comedy movie called “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!” — which ended up bombing at the box office.

“I read the script. It was so bad. You know, I’ve also done some movies that went right in the toilet, right? That were bad. But this was really bad,” Schwarzenegger recalled. “So I went in – this was during our war – I said to myself, I’m going to leak out that I have tremendous interest. I know the way it works in Hollywood. I would then ask for a lot of money. So then they’d say, ‘Let’s go give it to Sly. Maybe we can get him for cheaper.’ So they told Sly, ‘Schwarzenegger’s interested. Here’s the press clippings. He’s talked about that. If you want to grab that one away from him, that is available.’”

Actor Sylvester Stallone poses at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles, October 29, 2016. (REUTERS)

The “Kindergarten Cop” actor completely nailed his plan.

“And he went for it! He totally went for it,” he gushed. “A week later, I heard about it, ‘Sly is signing now to do this movie.’ And I said, [pumps fist] ‘Yes!'”

The movie ended up making only $28.4 million domestically on a $45 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo.