On This Day

Rocky released

November 21st 1976

10:55 21 November 2024

'Rocky' was released on this day in 1976, opening at Cinema II in New York City. Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor in the early 1970s when, after watching a championship match between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, he was inspired to write a screenplay about an unknown, working class, Italian-American boxer from Philadelphia who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship.

Completed in just three and a half days, the script attracted interest from producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, who offered Stallone $350,000 for the rights, but he refused to sell unless he played the title role, even though he only had $106 in the bank, no car and was trying to sell his dog which he couldn't afford to feed. Stallone knew that Winkler and Chartoff's contract with United Artists would allow them to cast him if the budget was kept low enough, despite the studio pushing for a big name star such as Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds or James Caan. Filmed over 28 days on a budget of just over $1 million, 'Rocky' became the sleeper hit of the year, earning $225 million at the global box office and receiving ten Academy Award nominations, winning three including Best Picture.

The movie made Stallone an international star and started a franchise that to date has spawned eight sequels that have earned more than $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office.