THE Rocky movies have been thrilling Sly Stallone fans for nearly five decades.
The 1976 story of a boxing underdog spawned six films, but fans often wonder who owns the rights to the franchise.
Who owns the rights to the Rocky movie franchise?
The ownership of the Rocky franchise has long been a touchy topic for leading man Sylvester Stallone.
The actor starred in all six films, and appeared in two of the Creed films, but he has previously admitted that while he may have created Rocky, he doesn’t own even a piece of the character.
In 1976 Sly was was paid $75K (£62K) for his original screenplay and acting fees, plus 10 net points, which earned him at least $2.5M (£2M) on the first film, according to Variety.
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The original film earned £125M (£105M) at the box office - a runaway smash hit at the time.
It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won three, including Best Picture, but Stallone walked away with just his acting fee after failing to secure the rights
The rights to the franchise, plus the Creed movies, are owned by Irwin Winkler.
What has Sylvester Stallone said about the Rocky movie rights?
In November 2022, Sly talked again about how he feels about not owning the rights to the Rocky franchise.
During an interview on SiriusXM he was asked if there was any chance of “making peace” with Irwin Winkler.
“You can’t make peace with someone who’s been so, so nefarious in my, in my opinion,” Stallone said.
The actor went on to say “everyone made out well,” but no one was supposed to do better than anyone else.
Sly made it clear it’s not about the money for him, but more of him wanting to leave something from Rocky behind to his family once he’s gone.
He said: “I wrote it. I thought it would be nice to say, ‘Here’s the gesture darling here. Beautiful children, beautiful wife. When I’m long gone, this is you. This is what I made for you.’”
Sly said he and his family would never own the rights to the Rocky franchise.
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