Sylvester Stallone Ready to Throw in the Towel After 50-Year Fight for ‘Rocky’ Rights: ‘I Have Tried’

Sylvester Stallone became a box-office superstar after he wrote and created one of the most successful film franchises of all time with Rocky. However, for the past five decades he’s fought to get the rights back — and now, he’s throwing in the towel.

“God, I have tried!” he lamented on the Thursday, October 15, episode of Power Players with Brian Sozzi.

“I don’t want to get into it, but it was pretty locked up, and there was a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes,” Stallone, 80, explained of the legal battles that have gone on behind closed doors since the blockbuster film’s November 1976 release.

It took Stallone just three days to write the film’s script, as reported by Yahoo! Finance, and he fought to play the lead. But the deal he signed with producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff did not give him ownership or an equity stake in the franchise, which he could have then passed down to his children.

“Believe me, I’ve tried because I’ve said, wow… It’s like, can I visit my child?” Stallone told Sozzi, referring to the film he created. “But you know, time has moved on, and I have been very, very lucky. So I try not to dwell on that because the answer is absolutely not.”

Stallone has said he made $35,000 upfront for the first Rocky film and, thanks to a 10 percent share of profits, millions after it went on to make $225 million at the global box office, per Variety. The entire franchise, comprising nine films, has brought in more than $1.8 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

While Rocky‘s creator doesn’t enjoy ownership rights, Stallone has remained involved with the franchise, expanding his role to include directing and executive producing, including directing four Rocky films and serving as executive producer on the Creed spinoff series.

Additionally, Yahoo! Finance noted he has also directed and executive produced for his massive Rambo and The Expendables franchises, as well as many other projects. In 2018, Stallone launched Balboa Productions, which has been involved in successful film and TV projects like Tulsa King and Extracted.