Culture 3 min read By Alice Ashford
Amazon MGM ruling rivals studios hesitant to back Rocky film
Screenwriter Peter Gamble says rival studios balked at promoting another studio's franchise, pushing his Rocky-set film I Play Rocky toward an independent route with Amazon MGM as distributor.
The writer of I Play Rocky, Peter Gamble, says rival studios were reluctant to finance a film about the making of the original Rocky because it would have meant advertising another studio's franchise. The project ultimately went independent, with Amazon MGM signing on to distribute it in 2025, before filming began.
Gamble wrote the script on spec. It reached the Black List, the annual survey of unproduced screenplays admired within the industry, and was then taken up by producers Christian Baha and Toby Emmerich. In 2024 the team took the project to the Cannes Marché du Film to seek financing, and chose an independent route rather than relying on a studio to fund it.
The legal obstacles were significant. Dramatising a real person such as Sylvester Stallone may fall under fair use, but the approach carries risk. The film's most recognisable element, Bill Conti's theme « Gonna Fly Now », is difficult to use without the involvement of MGM, which owns the Rocky franchise. That ownership history is central to why rival studios were wary of the project.
The film, directed by Peter Farrelly, stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone and tells the story of how the original Rocky was made. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, where it was named runner-up for the People's Choice Award. It is the first film in the Rocky universe to be fully under Amazon ownership, following Amazon's purchase of MGM for $8.45 billion, a deal that closed in 2022. MGM also owns the James Bond franchise. Amazon ranked No. 1 on the 2026 Fortune 500.
The original Rocky was released in November 1976 on a budget of about $1 million. It earned ten Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Picture, and grossed about $117 million domestically. Five sequels followed between 1979 and 2006, and the Creed trilogy later extended the story. Across the nine films, the franchise has earned about $948 million domestically and $1.9 billion worldwide, and its merchandise ranges from action figures to mobile games.
The franchise's most recent entry, Creed III, opened with $58.7 million in March 2023 and was already in production before the MGM deal closed. Project Hail Mary later surpassed that opening record.
I Play Rocky opened on seven screens on November 6 and grossed about $345,000, or roughly $49,300 per screen. A wide release is scheduled for November 20. It remains unclear whether the film will attract a new generation of fans to the franchise, which is marking its 50th anniversary.
Source: fortune.com
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