Sylvester Stallone was forced to part ways with a replica of his Philadelphia Rocky statue when selling his home to pop singer Adele in 2022.
The Hollywood icon, who had already slashed the price of his compound by half to $58 million, revealed Adele wanted the bust kept by the pool of his former house.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the Rocky legend and Boxing Hall of Famer was pretty cool about the whole situation.
Asked by WSJ if he wanted to keep the iconic sculpture that appeared in Rocky III, Stallone replied: “I did. But she said, ‘That’s a no deal.
“[She told me] That’s going to blow the whole deal [if I don’t leave it]. She wanted the statue.”
Sylvester Stallone statue in Adele sale
On handing over the keys to the Londoner, Stallone was happy with how things turned out.
“I like what she’s doing. She’s making it gorgeous,” he added.
Stallone famously kicked Tinseltown’s doors down when penning the first Rocky script as a struggling actor in the 1970s.
After putting together the rough outline of the movie, Stallone pitched it to executives. Unsurprisingly, they loved it. However, they had one condition when accepting the project.
They told “Sly” that they wanted the part of Rocky to go to a significant actor of that period. Stallone had planned to play the part himself and was adamant about that part of the deal.
After hitting an impasse, Stallone signed off on a deal through his agent where the studio paid a set fee for the rights to his movie, and he could star in the film as Rocky Balboa.
The deal turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of Stallone’s life, as he missed out on billions worth of royalties after basically signing away the franchise.
Rocky deal
Speaking to World Boxing News exclusively about the deal, Stallone’s now-deceased co-agent [alongside Larry Kubik] Craig T Rumar’s son Chris gave an insight into the talks.
“Mr. Stallone did not directly negotiate with Chartoff-Winkler. Actors do not negotiate with producers in Hollywood – the agents negotiate.
“Through my father’s and Mr. Kubik’s efforts, Chartoff-Winkler agreed to produce Rocky with United Artists,” Chris told WBN.
Furthermore, the deal represented one of Stallone’s greatest regrets.
“I mentioned it a few times because it made a ton of money after “Rocky II” came out. Then “Rocky III” hit and made more than all of them.
“I said I’d like to have some ownership since I invented it. And that never happened. So I have zero ownership of Rocky,” confirmed Stallone to Variety Magazine.
