Sylvester Stallone Fights Rocky Producer for Franchise Ownership Rights

In a recent social media post, actor Sylvester Stallone accused Rocky franchise producer, Irwin Winkler, of denying him ownership rights.

The first film in the Rocky franchise was released in 1976 and became an instant hit with the audience. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year and also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The success of the movie led to the making of four more sequels in the series, along with a sequel series, beginning with Creed in 2015. Sylvester Stallone has played the titular character, Rocky Balboa, in all eight of the Rocky and Creed movies till now. Alongside Stallone, Irwin Winkler has also been associated with the franchise since the beginning and has served as the producer for every Rocky and Creed movie.

In 2019, Stallone revealed that despite his long-standing involvement with the franchise, and writing the original Rocky film, he has had no ownership of the rights to the franchise. Then, in April 2021, he announced that he would not be a part of the upcoming Creed 3.

In his recent Instagram post, Stallone accused the 93-year-old Irwin Winkler of withholding rights to the franchise. The post includes a satirical, stylized cartoon of Winkler, with his face on a snake’s body and a knife in place of a tongue.

In his caption, Stallone suggests that despite Winkler withholding the rights to the Rocky franchise for 47 years, he still wants “what’s left of his rights back”. Stallone further explains that though this subject is a painful one for him to discuss, he wants to leave a bit of his legacy for his children. He also thanks his fans for their support and love.

Irwin Winkler stated in a 2019 interview that he was astonished to learn of Stallone’s complaints with regard to the ownership of the franchise rights. Even though Stallone does not own the rights, the franchise nonetheless brought in millions of dollars for him.

In addition, Stallone both starred in and produced Creed and Creed II, making more than $10 million on both films. However, he still does not have an ownership stake in any part of the franchise.

Stallone was furious at being asked to stop complaining about the rights to the Rocky franchise simply because of the amount of money he could make out of it. This further aggravated the situation of the ownership rights of Rocky.

However, Stallone’s displeasure over not having partial ownership of the franchise stems not from his desire to earn more out of it, but from the desire to leave behind a legacy for his children. In fact, Stallone’s late son Sage even starred in Rocky V as the boxer’s son.

Thus, Stallone’s family is already deeply involved with the franchise, which is a large part of his legacy. Though Winkler has not made any public declaration about Stallone gaining partial ownership of the rights to the Rocky franchise yet, Stallone and his fans continue to express their displeasure in the matter.

About Rocky (Film Series)

Rocky is an American sports drama multimedia franchise created by Sylvester Stallone, which began with the eponymous 1976 film and has since become a cultural phenomenon, centered on the boxing career of Rocky Balboa. The franchise has been expanded into various films, and with a total worldwide gross of $1.7 billion, it is currently one of the highest-grossing media franchises.

The original film (Rocky) was written by Stallone and directed by John G. Avildsen, and was followed by the sequels Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky IV (1985), Rocky V (1990), and Rocky Balboa (2006), all of which were written and directed by Stallone and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After the sixth film, which was envisioned as the conclusion of the franchise, the spin-off and sequel films Creed (2015) and Creed II (2018), starring Michael B. Jordan as boxer Adonis Creed, were released; they were directed by Ryan Coogler and Steven Caple Jr. and also starred Stallone.