What do you know about the Rocky series? Inspiring facts about Sylvester Stallone’s films that have left their mark on cinema history.

Launched in 1976, the Rocky series made Sylvester Stallone one of the most unforgettable actors in the world of cinema and continues to impress millions of moviegoers today. So what is the story behind this cult series?

Again a success story, again the challenges faced. Born in 1946, Sylvester Stallone has undoubtedly accomplished great things throughout his career. In addition to big movies like Rambo, Rocky and The Expendables, he has also been involved in many other big and small movies. What we are going to discuss today is how he climbed the ladder of success and how he started the Rocky movie series, which has become an icon.

Here’s What You Need to Know About the Rocky Series

Stallone wrote the first draft of the Rocky movie in three and a half days

Stallone, who at the time had only 106 dollars in his pocket and very little experience in screenwriting, couldn’t get the idea of Rocky out of his head for a year after watching a Muhammad Ali fight. He wrote the first draft of the movie, spending about 84 hours and using a pen and paper. In this first draft of the movie, Adrian was a Jew, Mickey was a racist and Paulie was Adrian’s Jewish mother. Stallone envisioned Apollo Creed as a Jamaican fighter.

The movie was supposed to end with Balboa’s famous fight with Apollo and with the money he earned, opening a pet store for Adrian. But we know that in the movie Adrian already runs a pet store. Some parts of the script have been changed.

Studio Wants James Caan, Burt Reynolds or Ryan O’Neal to Play Rocky

United Artists offered Stallone $340,000 to sell them the rights to the script. However, the actor also wanted to star in the production. Eventually, the production budget was reduced to $1 million and Stallone was able to get the lead role.

According to the new contract, Stallone received $20,000 for the script and an actor’s fee of $350 per week for acting. At the time, this was the lowest fee set by SAG (Screen Actors Guild).

The Actress Playing Adrian Almost Became Susan Sarandon

The actress playing Adrian was almost Susan Sarandon, but Stallone and the producers thought she was too attractive for the role. At one point they even considered casting Cher. Bette Midler was also offered the role, but she declined. They thought the role would belong to Carrie Snogdress until her agent came up with a very high fee, but Talia Shire auditioned at the last minute and saved the day.

Stallone and Carl Weathers spent four weeks practicing for their big fight in the movie

Director John G. Avildsen recorded their fights on 8mm film so that they could watch them later and see exactly what they did and what they should have done. When it came time to actually film Creed and Balboa’s first fight at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, the producers advertised that they would give free chicken dinners to anyone who applied to portray the people who came to see the fight.

Rocky and Adrian visited the ice rink after hours due to financial difficulties

In the movie, Adrian and Rocky are supposed to visit the ice rink during working hours for their date. But since the cost of finding extras to skate around them would be too high, Avildsen asked Stallone to change the scene. So the two ice skated together.

For the Stallons, it was a “family business”

Stallone’s brother, Frank Stallone Jr. played a street singer in Rocky, while Frank Sr. kept time during the fight. Stallone’s first wife, Sasha, got a kiss from Rocky during a workout in the third movie.

Charlie Chaplin and Elvis Presley Admired the First Movie

Charlie Chaplin wrote a letter to Stallone and said that Rocky resembled a character he had played in his silent films. A few months after Chaplin died, Stallone said that the famous actor had invited him to his home in Switzerland and that he regretted not accepting the invitation. Likewise, a few months before Elvis died, he offered to see the movie Rocky together in Memphis, but Stallone refused.

Burt Young looks thinner in the second movie because he didn’t expect to be in it

Young lost weight for another movie and didn’t really want to play Paulie a second time. Stallone wrote a few lines in Rocky II to make sense of this seemingly obvious physical change.

Rocky’s famous run was almost 49 kilometers long

According to a 2013 calculation in Philadelphia magazine, Stallone’s run in Rocky II lasted approximately 49 kilometers. Eight hundred child extras were used for the character’s run from the front of his house to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts.

Rocky had an alternate ending

In this ending, Adrian and Paulie watch the second fight between Rocky and Apollo instead of returning home with the couple’s newborn baby. In this version, Adrian rushes into the ring with the rest of the audience and at the end of the movie throws himself into Rocky’s arms and hugs him.

Much Controversy Over Rocky Statue

After it was confirmed that Rocky III was going to be filmed, Stallone donated the 2.5-meter, 907-pound statue of Rocky Balboa to the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts. Philadelphia residents were divided over whether the bust deserved to stand at the top of the museum’s stairs. The Arts Commission eventually placed the bust on the sidewalk of the Philadelphia Spectrum sports complex. In 1990, the bust was moved back to its current location on the steps of the museum for the filming of the fifth movie, and then moved back again and remained at the sports complex until 2006, when it was placed in its current location, just below the steps of the museum, in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Rocky films.

Wyoming and Canada were portrayed as the Soviet Union in Rocky IV

Rocky’s epic training session before facing Ivan Drago was filmed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The camera, sound and transportation equipment froze at minus twenty degrees. Although the Balboa vs. Drago match was made to look like it took place in the Soviet Union, it was actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Dolph Lundgren Hospitalized Stallone

During the filming of the first round of the Balboa and Drago fight, Lundgren hit Stallone in the chest so hard that the actor’s heart began to swell as it hit his ribs. If the actor had not been rushed to the emergency room and then admitted to intensive care for eight days, his heart could have swelled to death.

Rocky had to die at the end of Rocky V

Stallone cried while writing the ending for this iconic character he created. Two weeks into shooting, a studio executive approached Avildsen and told him that Balboa, like Batman, Superman and James Bond, could never die.

And yes, Stallone directed the second, third and fourth films himself, leaving the fifth to Avildsen, the director of the first production. According to the script, Tommy “Machine” Gunn was supposed to kill Balboa in a street fight and at the end of the movie Adrian was supposed to tell the reporters gathered outside the hospital that Rocky’s spirit would live on forever.

Boxers Joe Frazier and Chuck Wepner felt they were being treated unfairly because Stallone drew heavily from their lives when he wrote the screenplays for their movies

Before Rocky Balboa was alive, Joe Frazier was running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts and punching meat at the slaughterhouse that employed him. Speaking to the media in 2008, Frazier said that he was only paid for appearing in the first movie and that the whole situation was upsetting for him.

Stallone was actually inspired to write the movie by Muhammad Ali’s fight with a very weak boxer named Chuck Wepner. Even though the boxer lost, he managed to knock Ali down once and became a local hero in New Jersey. Wepner even fought Andre the Giant before Balboa had fought Hulk Hogan. Wepner sued Stallone in 2003 and the two settled for an undisclosed fee. As for Ali, he recognized the similarities between himself and Apollo Creed, but didn’t care.

Rocky’s Turtles Cuff and Link Outlived Some Characters in the Series

The turtles in the 2018 Creed 2 movie are actually the same turtles from the first movie in 1976. We hope they have a happy life and appear in other movies.

Best Rocky Balboa Movie Quotes