Sylvester Stallone Speaks Out Against ROCKY Producer Irwin Winkler, Who Owns All the Rights to the Franchise
Sylvester Stallone has had a long career full of films that have stood the test of time, but his most well-known and beloved franchise is the Rocky films that have now made way for the Creed trilogy. The miscarriage of justice in the whole thing though, is that although Stallone created the character Rocky, wrote all the films, and even directed most of them, he has no rights to the still-popular movies. The ownership rights to the franchise belong in full to Irwin Winkler, producer of the films.
This has been a problem that has plagued Stallone for decades, and he recently spoke out about it via a post on his Instagram that features a drawing of Irwin Winkler as a snake. The post states:
A VERY Flattering portrait of The Great Rocky/ Creed Producer , IRWIN WINKLER, from one of the country‘s greatest artist … ALSO after IRWIN controlling ROCKY for over 47 years , and now CREED, , I really would like have at least a little WHAT’s LEFT of my RIGHTS back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN - I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman ? … This is a painful subject That eats at my soul , because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children, but it’s always great hearing from the loyal fans… Keep Punching
There’s clearly a lot of bad feelings here, and for good reason! Stallone created this character and these movies, and he is the heart of the franchise. He deserves the rights in full, or at least a big fat portion. Check out the post below, and let us know what your favorite Rocky movie is.