Among the definitive action heroes of Hollywood, the meteoric rise of Sylvester Stallone to the top of the industry is something straight out of a storybook.

Starting out with softcore pornos while working his way up the ladder with bit parts here and there, Stallone’s trajectory completely changed with the unimaginable success of Rocky.

Based on a screenplay that was penned by Stallone in three days, the 1976 boxing drama is now recognised as the gold standard for sports movies anywhere.

Following the rise of the titular fighter whose underdog story touched the hearts of fans all over the world, Rocky didn’t just become a critical and commercial success but also a bonafide cultural phenomenon.

Mick Jagger interviewed about fame, privacy and politics (1970)

However, the period following Stallone’s biggest success was a difficult one for the actor, who found it hard to navigate the unprecedented fame and attention.

According to The Expendables star, the media’s treatment of Rocky set him up for failure in some ways.

During a conversation with Roger Ebert, Stallone opened up about how his self-image had been inflated by the press and the constant attention he received.

This translated to the failure of his 1978 misfire Paradise Alley.

Stallone reflected: “You know what I think happened? After Rocky, I was almost set up in the eyes of the media to make a flop. The last two years have been pretty tough, public image-wise.

I said some things that did not exactly endear me. My ego got blown out of proportion.

I reran, just out of curiosity, some cassettes of talk shows I was on. I realised painfully that I was giving Sylvester Stallone, and they wanted Rocky.”

At that time, the media dismissed Stallone as a one-hit wonder and claimed that only a sequel to Rocky could salvage his career.

This statement offended Stallone to a great extent, who did not want to think of the sequel as a comeback.

He revealed: “There is this one question, which, when I hear it, makes me very mad.

They all ask me, Will Rocky II save your career? Is this my comeback, they wanna know?

Will it pull my career out of the toilet? I didn’t think I was doin’ so bad. I’ve never made a film that lost money.

If Rocky II was a comeback, I coulda made it a lot more commercial. Like, Rocky coulda been an astronaut.”

While Rocky II didn’t quite capture the same kind of magic as its predecessor, it did replicate the enormous financial success of the first film by becoming one of the highest-grossing works of the year.