Rocky's record-breaking legacy as ultimate underdog story celebrates 50th anniversary
The ultimate underdog story is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month – with Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky first hitting cinema screens in November 1976.
The story of small-time boxer Rocky Balboa’s fight for glory and his place at the top as the heavyweight champion of the world has been inspiring people for decades.
It’s being re-released in cinemas to mark the milestone, and biopic I Play Rocky, which stars Anthony Ippolito as a young Sly fighting for the right to play the main role in the movie he’d written, is demonstrating just what an iconic moment in cinema history this was.
Rocky was such a huge success that it spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs – so many that it broke a record as the most successful sports movie franchise.
To date, it’s made a reported $1.9 billion (£1.42 bn), with an average of $214 million (£159 m) per movie.
Rocky IV was the highest-grossing of them all, pulling in $300 m (£224 m) at the box office. To this day, it retains the record for highest-grossing boxing movie. It was, at a time, the overall highest-grossing sports movie as well, but it’s been overtaken by a few others since then.
Guinness World Records' Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday even presented Sly and his co-star Dolph Lundgren, who played rival boxer Ivan Drago, with their certificates at San Diego Comic Con in 2013.
Craig at Comic Con with Lundgren and Stallone
Being an underdog is something Sly knows all too well. Not only did he fight tooth and nail for the role of Rocky, with producers trying to push him out and cast a big name actor instead (he’d been acting since 1969 but mainly in small uncredited film roles and one-off appearances in TV series), but poor Sly has had a hard time with the critics as well.
He holds the record for most Razzie nominations.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, aka the Razzies, are a kind of anti-Oscars that award the so-perceived ‘worst’ films, actors, directors and screenplays of the year.
He’s been nominated 40 times and won 12, including for his acting performances in Rhinestone (1985) and Rambo III (1989).
Things did turn around for him in 2016 when they handed him the Redeemer Award for his critical comeback in Creed, the seventh-instalment in the Rocky franchise.
Of being recognized by the Razzies so many times, he once told the Hollywood Reporter: “It did [used to annoy me]. But now I see the humour in it because there are some really good performers in there.
“I said things about critics like, ‘Let them try to do it’. I said I love critiques, but now tell me how to make it better in the same paragraph. ‘That’s not our job.’ Well, that’s like going up to a child and going, ‘You’re a horrible child!’ and then you walk out of the room. How about the other side of it?”
Read about more record-breaking movies in our Arts and Entertainment section.
In true record-breaking fashion, Rocky’s anniversary is being marked with a special attempt for the largest gathering of people dressed as Rocky Balboa this Friday (13 November).
Fans of the franchise will gather at the famous City Hall steps in Philadelphia, USA, which you’ll recognize from Rocky’s training montage in the first movie.
Here it is if you fancy seeing it again…
To claim the record, a minimum of 250 people will need to be there dressed for the occasion.
Their costumes must be based on this scene, so they’ll have to be wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, grey sweatpants, a black knit hat and black high-top sneakers.
Now, that’s what we call People Power! Sly will surely be wishing these underdogs the best of luck.
Header image: A scene from Rocky. United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock