Skip to content
Home » Sylvester Stallone feels cheated out $1.5 billion Rocky profits

Sylvester Stallone feels cheated out $1.5 billion Rocky profits

  • by
  • 3 min read

Boxing icon Sylvester Stallone remains angry at the fact he was ousted from the royalties for his beloved Rocky franchise.

Stallone is disappointed that he cannot leave his children a percentage of the profits. That’s despite his creation of Rocky Balboa and the subsequent highly successful movie and sequels.

Since touting the script to producers in 1975, Stallone pushed himself as the star and dug his heels in until he was cast as the failed boxer-turned-loan shark.

Signing a standard deal at the time, the actor was given set fees for his screenplay, acting as the title character, and producing/directing involvement for the first three movies.

Despite massive box office success for the saga over 45 years, Stallone still has no percentage of the $1.5 BILLION plus upturns the films cleared.

WBN continues to profile the interview Stallone did with Variety Magazine. In it, the Expendables, Get Carter, First Blood, First Blood Part II, Rambo III, Rambo Last Blood, Guardians of the Galaxy, Judge Dredd, and forthcoming Tulsa King star detailed his frustration.

Sylvester Stallone angry

“I was very angry. I was furious,” the action movie legend explained to Claudia Eller. “Rocky is on TV worldwide more than any other Oscar-winning film other than ‘Godfather.’

“You have six of them. Now you have ‘Creed’ and ‘Creed II’ [soon to be more Creed films].

“I love the system. Don’t get me wrong. My kids and their kids are taken care of because of the system.

“But there are dark little segues and people that have put it to you.

“They say the definition of Hollywood is someone who stabs you in the chest. They don’t even hide it.”

Asked by Eller if his attorney Jake Bloom said that, Stallone replied: “Yeah, in a roundabout way. You’re not going to get any more.

“He said, ‘No one gets it.’ I said, ‘I get it, but this is kind of an exception to the rule.’ I was so preoccupied with other things I didn’t belabor it.

“I think there was a certain code of business conduct, maybe not as much now, but back then, that you don’t ruffle the feathers of the golden goose.

“The studio is all the power. The agency relies upon them. The attorneys are the go-betweens.

“When I finally confronted them (in 1985 before Rocky IV), I said, ‘Does it bother you guys that I’ve written every word, I’ve choreographed it, I’ve been loyal to you, I’ve promoted it, directed it, and I don’t have 1% that I could leave for my children?’

“And the quote was, ‘You got paid.’ And that was the end of the conversation.”

Rocky movie profits

It’s quite astonishing that Stallone doesn’t have control of his franchise. But as previously stated by WBN, that was standard practice during the 1970s.

Only recently have big-name actors been able to sign a percentage into their contracts. This is obviously why Stallone feels hard done by.

Since portraying Philadelphia’s favorite son in the first film, Stallone has forged a career that made him millions without his entitlement.

His rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger alone netted him the biggest paychecks throughout the 1980s.

It’s a far cry from his debut in The Party at Kitty and Stud’s [1970] and disco-dancing in Klute [1971].

WBN has been in contact with people close to what happened to Sylvester Stallone during that time. Furthermore, Stallone is not the only one who feels wronged.

Follow WBN: Facebook, Insta, Twitter