Sylvester Stallone is not in ‘Creed 3’ – the ninth film in the legendary boxing series – but what’s more surprising is that Sly almost wasn’t in the very first ‘Rocky’, because the studio tried paying him not to appear in it.
Stallone, who played boxer Rocky Balboa in six Rocky movies plus a trainer in two Creed spin-offs starring Michael B Jordan, wrote the Oscar-winning 1976 original. He’s now so attached to the character that it’s impossible to imagine someone else playing the big-hearted ‘Italian Stallion’.
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But at the time, studio United Artists loved the script – but were less enthusiastic about casting a penniless, unknown actor in the lead role. So they offered Stallone up to $265,000 – around £1.4million in today’s money – to let them film ‘Rocky’ but without Sly in the leading role.
Understandably, the studio wanted the likes of Godfather actor James Caan, Robert Redford or Burt Reynolds to play the southpaw slugger. As opposed to a bit-part actor whose previous roles included ‘Subway Thug #1’ and ‘Stud’ (from the now forgotten classic ‘The Party at Kitty and Stud's’).
However, Stallone was as immovable on his screenplay as Rocky Balboa was in the ring. He was adamant that the only way ‘Rocky’ was being made was with himself in the lead role, just as he’d envisioned when he was writing the story.
“It went up to about $265,000 to stay away,” Stallone explained in 1977. “But what they didn’t count on is, when a person hasn’t had that type of money, they really don’t miss it. In other words: if you haven’t ridden in a Rolls-Royce, you don’t mind bouncing around in a Volkswagen.
“But more than that if I sold it, even for $500,000, I knew that after the money was gone I would become very bitter for having sold out – because my one love was at least getting to fail on my own terms. I wanted to see if I could act.”
Stallone had worked odd jobs, including cleaning out the lion cages at Central Park Zoo, to make ends meet as he struggled to find acting parts. When he sat down to write Rocky – inspired by Chuck Wepner managing to last into the 15th round with Muhammad Ali in a 1975 heavyweight world title fight – he was on the verge of being kicked out of his apartment.
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Sly had £106 in the bank, his wife was pregnant with their first child and he was struggling to even feed the family dog – Butkus – who would co-star in the film.
Eventually the studio relented and Stallone was promised a guaranteed $35,000 – $25,000 for the script, plus basic actor’s pay – for a film shot in only 25 days. The budget for ‘Rocky’ was $960,000 with Stallone’s dad and his brother Frank also appearing as extras.
''I never would have sold it,'' Stallone later told the New York Times. ''I told my wife that I'd rather bury it in the back yard and let the caterpillars play Rocky. I would have hated myself for selling out… My wife agreed, and said she'd be willing to move to a trailer in the middle of a swamp if need be.''
Yet Sly’s stubborn refusal to let the studio pay him off turned out to be a surprise KO victory. ‘Rocky’ was a mega-hit with critics and audiences, and while ‘the ultimate underdog story’ made Stallone a movie star, it also made his fortune. ‘Rocky’ made $225million at the box office – becoming the second-highest grossing film in 1977 after ‘Star Wars’, despite actually being released at the end of 1976.
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Stallone’s basic pay was $35,000, but the actor/creator had smartly negotiated himself a percentage of the film’s profits. Not knowing they had a blockbuster on their hands, United Artists agreed – and Stallone eventually made over $25million from the film.
In 2023, Stallone is worth more than $400m and much of that is down to the Philadelphia heavyweight he created. ‘Rocky II’ was Stallone’s next big hit, making north of $200million on a $7million budget – with Sly directing as well as writing and starring.
Then came ‘Rocky III’ and ‘Rambo: First Blood’ in 1983. Suddenly the New Yorker had two iconic film characters on his record and was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
Still, even when ‘Rocky’ was a triumph in the 1970s – being nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winning three including Best Picture – few would have expected the series to last all the way until 2023 (and possibly beyond).
Jordan and director Ryan Coogler breathed new life into the franchise with ‘Creed’ in 2015, focusing on the son of the champ Balboa fought in the very first film: Apollo Creed. Sly earned another Oscar nomination for his superb turn as a heartbroken, Adrian-mourning Rock in that superb melodrama.
Now comes ‘Creed 3’ with Jordan following in Stallone’s footsteps and taking on both director and lead actor roles. Sly’s character may not be on screen for the first time in a Rocky film – but the series would never have lasted this long without Stallone’s insistence that he play the title role. Refusing more than a quarter of a million dollars turned out to be the best decision that a broke and unknown actor ever made.
