‘Rocky’ Is the Story of an Underdog, Created by an Underdog, That Has Spawned Box-Office Champions for Half a Century

Sylvester Stallone was a struggling actor when he was inspired by a real boxing match to write the film that became a legend. This year, the origin story of the franchise turns 50.

Chris Carra

Photograph by Vincent Tullo

September/October 2026

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The crowd at Ohio’s Richfield Coliseum erupted on March 24, 1975, as Chuck Wepner hit the ropes just 19 seconds short of the final bell. Few had expected the journeyman fighter to withstand a couple of rounds against Muhammad Ali, let alone come achingly close to surviving the full 15—with the wherewithal to knock the champion to the canvas at one point. Not long after watching the fight live in a Los Angeles movie theater via closed circuit, a young aspiring actor named Sylvester Stallone was moved to begin writing a screenplay.

Completing his initial script in little more than three days, Stallone told the fictional story of Rocky Balboa, a backstreet boxer from Philadelphia who gets the opportunity to challenge the flamboyant heavyweight world champ, Apollo Creed, in an exhibition match during the United States’ bicentennial. Stallone wrote the part of Rocky for himself—and to ensure that he played the lead, he rejected an offer for the film rights from United Artists, reportedly worth $360,000. The production company, wary of casting an unknown, ultimately paid Stallone a lower price, then greenlighted the movie with a shoestring budget of around $1 million. Upon its release in 1976, Rocky punched well above its weight, drawing more than $225 million at the box office. Fifty years later, the scrappy hero remains shorthand for American grit.

Like Wepner, Rocky had no realistic chance of winning his once-in-a-lifetime bout, yet his determination to go the distance saw him become one of cinema’s favorite underdogs. Amid the economic malaise of 1970s stagflation, Stallone’s slurring, bloodied embodiment of working-class perseverance resonated with moviegoers and critics alike, earning ten nominations at the 49th Academy Awards and winning three—including Best Picture.

The film was shot on location in less than a month, and director John G. Avildsen took a semi-guerrilla approach. Key scenes were filmed without permits, unsuspecting locals were used as extras, and the story played out among a largely unknown cast; Burgess Meredith, as Rocky’s cantankerous trainer, Mickey, was the biggest name in the credits. This intimate, authentic feel—more akin to a sports documentary than to a scripted film—became one of the movie’s greatest strengths. A 1977 New York Times article reported that many theater audiences treated the film almost as a live sporting event: They “shouted for their hero, suffered vocally with each blow to his face, exulted when he got in a good punch and cheered loudly when it was all over.”

Some viewers even came to conflate Rocky’s underdog story with Stallone’s astonishing real-life ascent from a chronically struggling actor to an Oscar--nominated star and screenwriter in about a year. But as Stallone told Vanity Fair in September 1990: “Rocky’s not me. ... They’re not responding to the politics and the beliefs of Sylvester Stallone. When they’re cheering, they’re cheering for Rocky. And when they’re cheering for Rocky, they’re cheering for themselves.”

Throughout the six-film series, Stallone approached the title role with a gravitas few might expect. Ahead of Rocky III, he trained with legendary bodybuilder Franco Columbu and reportedly lowered his body fat levels to 2.8 percent—beneath the threshold deemed healthy. His physical daring went further still in Rocky IV: During filming, Stallone had the 240-pound martial artist Dolph Lundgren—playing Balboa’s Soviet counterpart, Ivan Drago—punch him in the chest so hard, it put him in intensive care for days.

Half a century on, the trumpet fanfare of the film’s theme, Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now,” remains a stirring anthem of determination, played from locker rooms to presidential campaign rallies. The Philadelphia Museum of Art may hold more than 240,000 objects, but its most recognizable artifact is a statue of Stallone as Rocky that has long enjoyed an iconic spot outside at the east entrance, where 72 stone steps—the terminus of Rocky’s triumphant training run—endure as a pilgrimage for fans. In 2025, Philadelphia International Airport unveiled a ten-foot bronze statue of Rocky to greet arrivals to the city, recognizing that he’s as vital a symbol for Philly as the Liberty Bell or the cheesesteak. The film critic Matt Zoller Seitz has called the first Rocky “as perfect a film as has ever been made,” writing for RogerEbert.com in 2024 that “the original 1976 Rocky has become part of the pop-culture unconscious, holding its spot as tightly as Casablanca and It’s a Wonderful Life.” 

Rocky’s career in the ring ended with a final outing in Rocky Balboa (2006), but the universe Stallone created continues to expand. The spinoff Creed series, following the exploits of Apollo’s son Adonis, is now a franchise in its own right, with a fourth installment in development. To coincide with Rocky’s 50th anniversary, Stallone will publish his memoir, appropriately titled The Steps, in September, and a biopic is set to follow in November. I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito as Stallone, will chart the unconventional development of a movie legend.

Though Rocky has now bowed out of the ongoing Creed franchise, his imprint endures. As the series’ star, Michael B. Jordan, has said, Stallone and “Rocky’s DNA is through this entire franchise. ... That underdog spirit, I think, connects the underdog in all of us.” 

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Real Heels

Rocky’s antagonists were larger than life. And each defined an era

By David J. Roth

Rocky II: Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) kept his title belt in the first film, but in this sequel, desperation—the champ’s for a more decisive win, Rocky’s to make ends meet—pushes both to a brutal rematch. Apollo is Rocky’s ultimate foil: charismatic, a little bored with success and too quick to dismiss a working-class palooka.

Rocky III: Despite Hulk Hogan’s early turn in the film as a wrestler called Thunderlips, Rocky’s real rival here is rising fighter James “Clubber” Lang, played by Mr. T. (Real-life champs Joe Frazier and Earnie Shavers were considered for the role.) The jacked, triumphant Rocky of the 1980s was very different from the hardscrabble ’70s version, and Lang proved an appropriately cartoonish foe.

Rocky IV: Rocky’s most evil nemesis is Soviet champion Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who fatally injures Creed during an exhibition fight. Drago is a perfect villain for the late Cold War: Precisely programmed to “break” Rocky, he pumps performance enhancers and obeys icy government handlers. Drago’s afterlife is consequential: His dispatching of Creed provides the basis for Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s Creed franchise. 

Rocky Balboa: Three decades after Rocky, the series comes full circle in 2006, with another long-shot bout against (yet) another champion who takes Rocky too lightly. This time, it’s Mason “The Line” Dixon, played by former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver. The outcome is once again a split-decision win for the titleholder—but a moral victory for the eponymous people’s champ.

Chris Carra is a freelance journalist from Swansea, Wales.

Vincent Tullo Photographer Vincent Tullo, who is based in New York, focuses on portraiture.