Creed III is now officially the highest grossing film within the Rocky franchise. You would stop just short of calling it the most commercially successful movie in the series, considering a few factors. To start with, the very first Rocky movie was produced on a $960,000 budget, only to end up grossing $225 million at the box office. That is even before you make any adjustments for inflation.
In the first week of April 2023 (one month after its theatrical debut), Creed III had already hit and surpassed the $260 million. It is no mean feat for Michael B. Jordan, who made his directorial feature debut with the film. He also returned in the starring role he played in Creed and Creed II, alongside his now embattled friend Jonathan Majors.
Jordan is not the first person to hold dual roles within the world of Rocky. The franchise itself is the brainchild of Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the original script and then went on to star in the titular role for a total of six films. He also directed four of those.
Jordan then took over the mantle as Adonis Creed, although Stallone did feature in the first two Creed movies. It is why his absence in the third has been so notable. Unfortunately, the legendary actor is so displeased with how things have turned out that he insisted he wouldn’t even watch this latest release.
Sylvester Stallone Does Not Own Any Of The Rights To Rocky
In another universe, it might be unimaginable that one can find themselves on the outside of a franchise they created, looking in. That is certainly not the case in our world, and particularly not in showbiz. Whether it’s music or movies, the person who holds most or all the power is not the creator of a particular piece, but the one who, one way or the other, owns the rights.
When Sylvester Stallone first wrote the script for Rocky in 1975, his friend and colleague Henry Winkler took it to executives at ABC on his behalf. The network expressed interest in the story, but conditioned their involvement in the project on someone else re–writing the script.
Stallone stood firm that time and a few others after that, as he insisted on also being cast in the main lead. In the excitement of finally getting to make his movie, though, he did not realize the gravity of one thing: all the rights to the world and characters he created were gone.
Was Sylvester Stallone Kicked Out Of Creed 3?
It would have been a bittersweet experience for Sylvester Stallone to see the kind of success that his script would go on to have, enduring strong nearly five decades later. Yet, while he was not able to have any absolute say in what direction the sequels would take, he was always considered the face of the franchise. Even when Michael B. Jordan came to the fore with Creed, Stallone was still considered a part of the family and always welcome to feature in the stories.
So how did things turn so sour that he didn’t even make a cameo in Creed III? The Rambo star definitely appeared to have reached a breaking point in July last year, when he took to Instagram to call out producer Irwin Winkler (no relation to Stallone’s friend, Henry), and ask that he cede some of the rights back to him.
Winkler’s company procured the rights all those years back, but failed to offer Stallone any kind of a stake. When the actor realized decades later that this reality was never going to change, he decided not to feature in Creed III.
Why Isn’t Sylvester Stallone Planning To Watch Creed 3?
It is one thing not wanting to be involved in the creation of the movie. Sylvester Stallone’s revelation that he was not even planning to watch Creed III, however, revealed just how bad things had gotten between him and the powers that be within the Rocky franchise. With his 80th birthday not many years in the horizon, Stallone spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his life, career and regrets.
This was back in November 2022, a few months before the release of Creed III. Asked about his message to Irwin Winkler on Instagram, he said: “No. [Getting back rights to Rocky is] never gonna happen. It was a deal that was done unbeknownst to me by people that I thought were close to me and they basically gave away whatever rights I would have had.”
While Stallone harbors no ill feelings towards Michael B. Jordan and others working in the franchise, there is no love lost between him and Winkler, who he referred to in a separate interview as “so, so nefarious.” It is in fact his history with Winkler that has driven him to a point of not even wanting to watch any new Rocky or Creed films.
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