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Why Rocky Still Matters: 50 Years of the Greatest Underdog Story Ever Told
Rocky still matters because it is the underdog story every sports film since has borrowed from: a Philadelphia club fighter who only wants to last 15 rounds, in a film that beat Network, Taxi Driver and All the President's Men for Best Picture. Rocky (1976) premiered in November 1976, won Best Picture at the 49th Academy Awards and launched a franchise that now runs to six Rocky films and three Creed films. Ranking the Rocky movies is really a way of asking which of those nine films still understands what the first one knew.
The 50th anniversary is a theatrical event, not just a streaming one.
A 4K restoration of Rocky is playing in US theaters from November 7 to November 11, 2026, through Fathom Entertainment, and I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's drama about how Sylvester Stallone got the film made, opened in select theaters on November 6 and goes nationwide on November 20, 2026. Stallone and composer Bill Conti marked the anniversary together at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre on November 5. If you can catch the original on a big screen this week, do that first, then come back to the rankings.
The ranking below argues one position from start to finish: the Rocky and Creed films are at their best when the fight is the smallest thing in them. Any entry that forgets that drops down the list, no matter how much money it made.
How We Ranked Every Rocky and Creed Movie
Every Rocky and Creed movie was scored on four rounds, and a film climbs this list by winning the rounds that happen outside the ring. Box office counts for nothing here: Rocky IV is the franchise's biggest worldwide hit, and it sits in the bottom tier.
Round 1, The Fighter. Does the film know who its boxer is when the gloves come off?
Round 2, The Corner. Are the people around him, from Adrian and Mickey to Bianca and Rocky himself, written as people rather than cheerleaders?
Round 3, The Fight. Is the boxing staged so that you feel what every round costs?
Round 4, The Bell. Does the ending earn its emotion, or does it simply announce it?
The nine films fall into three tiers of three. The Bottom Tier loses at least two rounds, the Solid Middle wins most of them and drops one, and the Heavy Hitters win all four. Box office figures in this piece are as of November 2026.
At a Glance: Every Rocky and Creed Movie, Ranked
| Film | Year | Director | Tier | US platform | Key fact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9. Rocky V | 1990 | John G. Avildsen | Bottom Tier | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | $40.9 million US, the franchise's lowest |
| 8. Creed II | 2018 | Steven Caple Jr. | Bottom Tier | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | $214.2 million worldwide |
| 7. Rocky IV | 1985 | Sylvester Stallone | Bottom Tier | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | $300.5 million worldwide, the franchise high |
| 6. Creed III | 2023 | Michael B. Jordan | Solid Middle | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | $156.2 million US, the franchise high |
| 5. Rocky III | 1982 | Sylvester Stallone | Solid Middle | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | Oscar nomination for "Eye of the Tiger" |
| 4. Rocky II | 1979 | Sylvester Stallone | Solid Middle | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | The first Rocky film Stallone directed |
| 3. Rocky Balboa | 2006 | Sylvester Stallone | Heavy Hitters | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | $155.9 million worldwide on a $24 million budget |
| 2. Creed | 2015 | Ryan Coogler | Heavy Hitters | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | Stallone won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination |
| 1. Rocky | 1976 | John G. Avildsen | Heavy Hitters | Prime Video, Paramount+; rent or buy on Apple TV | Won 3 Oscars from 10 nominations, including Best Picture |
The Complete Rocky and Creed Franchise: Ranked from Worst to Best
Ranked from worst to best, the nine films are Rocky V, Creed II, Rocky IV, Creed III, Rocky III, Rocky II, Rocky Balboa, Creed and Rocky. The original 1976 Rocky is the best film in the franchise, and Rocky V is the weakest.
The Bottom Tier: The Franchise's Weakest Entries
The Bottom Tier holds Rocky V, Creed II and Rocky IV, three films that lose the fighter inside the spectacle or, in Rocky V's case, lose the ring entirely.
9. Rocky V (1990)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sage Stallone, Tommy Morrison
Runtime: 104 min
US box office: $40.9 million
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon, and Fandango at Home.
Rocky V is the weakest Rocky movie: a broke, brain-damaged Rocky Balboa returns to South Philadelphia and trains a young heavyweight, Tommy Gunn, who abandons him for a flashier promoter. John G. Avildsen, back for the first time since the original, shoots the old neighborhood with real affection, and Tommy Morrison, who plays Tommy, was a working heavyweight who went on to win the WBO title in 1993. The trouble is that the film never decides whose story it is telling: Rocky's, his neglected son Robert's or Tommy's.
Rocky V ends with a street fight outside a bar instead of a bout in a ring, and it feels like the film admitting it has nowhere left to go. Stallone's original script had Rocky die after that fight, according to the AFI Catalog, before the studio pushed for the character to survive. Rocky V took $40.9 million in the US, the lowest gross in the franchise.
Best for: a completist marathon, slotted between Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa so the 16-year gap makes sense.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky V is not a boxing film. It is a film about a father who notices his son too late, and the scenes between Stallone and his real-life son Sage carry more weight than anything involving Tommy Gunn. If the film had trusted that story and let Rocky's last fight be a conversation at the kitchen table, it would sit much higher on this list.
8. Creed II (2018)
Director: Steven Caple Jr.
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren, Florian Munteanu
Runtime: 130 min
US box office: $115.7 million ($214.2 million worldwide)
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Creed II is the sequel that brings back Ivan Drago, the Soviet fighter who killed Apollo Creed in Rocky IV, and sets Adonis Creed against Drago's son, Viktor. Steven Caple Jr. took over from Ryan Coogler, and the film's best material belongs to the fathers. Dolph Lundgren gives Ivan a bitterness that Rocky IV never had room for, and the final fight turns on a decision Ivan makes rather than a punch Adonis throws.
Creed II ranks this low because its middle hour runs the Rocky III and Rocky IV playbook almost beat for beat: a humiliating loss, a desert training montage and a rematch in Moscow. The birth of Adonis and Bianca's daughter, Amara, should be the emotional center of the film, and instead it gets squeezed in between rounds. Creed II grossed $214.2 million worldwide.
Best for: a same-night double bill with Rocky IV.
The Screendollars Take
Creed II is not really Adonis Creed's movie. It is Ivan Drago's, a story about a beaten man who raised his son as a weapon and finally refuses to let him be used up. The scenes between Lundgren and Florian Munteanu say more about losing than the main plot does, which is both the film's gift and its problem.
7. Rocky IV (1985)
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Brigitte Nielsen, Dolph Lundgren
Runtime: 91 min
US box office: $127.9 million ($300.5 million worldwide)
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Rocky IV is the Cold War Rocky: Apollo Creed dies in an exhibition bout against the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago, and Rocky travels to the Soviet Union to fight Drago on Christmas Day. At 91 minutes it is the shortest film in the franchise, and it plays like a run of music videos stitched to two fights. It was also Dolph Lundgren's first American film and the franchise's biggest worldwide hit, at $300.5 million.
The training montage, with Rocky hauling logs through the snow while Drago runs on machines, is pure kinetic fun, and plenty of fans rank Rocky IV near the top for exactly that reason. It loses rounds on this list because it reduces Drago to a slogan and Rocky to a flag, and the closing speech about everybody being able to change is the franchise lecturing instead of feeling.
Best for: a loud Friday night with friends who came for the montages.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky IV is a sports drama. It is a 91-minute poster that happens to be a blast, and its best scene comes before any real fight: Apollo dancing into the ring to James Brown's "Living in America," too proud to hear the warning. Carl Weathers plays that pride so well that the film never recovers from losing him.
The Solid Middle: Good Films That Don't Quite Land a Knockout
The Solid Middle holds Creed III, Rocky III and Rocky II, three good films that each win most of their rounds and drop one.
6. Creed III (2023)
Director: Michael B. Jordan
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad
Runtime: 116 min
US box office: $156.2 million ($276.1 million worldwide)
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Creed III is Michael B. Jordan's directing debut and the first film in the franchise without Sylvester Stallone on screen as Rocky Balboa, though Stallone kept a producer credit. A retired Adonis Creed, now running a gym in Los Angeles, is confronted by Damian Anderson, a childhood friend released after 18 years in prison who wants the title shot he believes Adonis took from him. Jonathan Majors makes Damian frightening because he is not wrong about everything.
Jordan stages part of the final fight as if the arena has vanished, leaving two men alone with their history, a stylistic risk no earlier Rocky film would have taken. Creed III is the franchise's highest-grossing film in the US, at $156.2 million, and its $58.4 million opening weekend is still the series record.
Best for: a Sunday afternoon right after Creed II, when you want to see where Adonis lands without Rocky.
The Screendollars Take
Creed III is not a revenge film. It is a film about guilt, and Adonis is really fighting the version of himself who got lucky. It drops a round by rushing Damian from wronged friend to villain, but it wins one by proving the series can stand on its own without its founder.
5. Rocky III (1982)
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Mr. T
Runtime: 99 min
US box office: $125.0 million
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Rocky III is the film where a comfortable champion, Rocky Balboa, loses his title to Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T, and has to be rebuilt by his old rival Apollo Creed. Mickey's death in the locker room after Rocky's first fight with Lang gives the film real weight, and turning Apollo from enemy to trainer is the smartest structural move in the original series. Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" was written for the film and earned its only Oscar nomination, for Best Original Song.
Rocky III drops a round on Clubber Lang. Mr. T is fun to watch, but Lang is a snarl rather than a man, so Rocky ends up fighting a mood instead of a person.
Best for: the night before a big interview, when you need a reminder that comfort is the enemy.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky III is not about Clubber Lang. It is about Rocky discovering that success cost him something, and Apollo, of all people, is the one who gives it back. The private rematch between Rocky and Apollo that closes the film, freezing on their first punches, is the best ending any Rocky sequel has.
4. Rocky II (1979)
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith
Runtime: 119 min
US box office: $85.2 million
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Rocky II picks up on the night of the first Apollo Creed fight and ends with the rematch, and it is the first Rocky film Stallone directed. Its middle hour is the series at its most human: Rocky marries Adrian, flops in a TV commercial, loses a job at the meat-packing plant and sits by Adrian's hospital bed after complications from their son's birth leave her in a coma. When she wakes, she gives him one word: "Win."
The training run with a crowd of Philadelphia kids chasing Rocky to the museum steps is the moment the character turns into a civic myth. Rocky II drops a round by handing Rocky the victory the first film wisely denied him, which makes the ending louder and smaller at the same time.
Best for: a slow Saturday when you want the love story as much as the boxing.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky II is not about the rematch. It is about the year between the fights, when a man who finally has a wife, a baby and a little money discovers that none of it pays for itself. Talia Shire carries the hospital scenes, and her one-word instruction is the most famous pep talk in the series because the film has earned it.
The Heavy Hitters: The Franchise at Its Absolute Best
The Heavy Hitters are Rocky Balboa, Creed and Rocky, the three films in the franchise that win all four rounds.
3. Rocky Balboa (2006)
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia, Antonio Tarver
Runtime: 102 min
US box office: $70.3 million ($155.9 million worldwide)
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Rocky Balboa, released 16 years after Rocky V, finds a widowed Rocky running a small Philadelphia restaurant named after Adrian and agreeing to an exhibition bout against the young heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon, played by the real boxer Antonio Tarver. Stallone wrote and directed it, and he made a film about grief disguised as a comeback. Rocky walks the old neighborhood telling the same stories to anyone who will listen, and the film lets those walks run long.
Rocky Balboa made $155.9 million worldwide on a $24 million budget, and it left the door open for Creed nine years later.
Best for: a quiet night when you are missing someone.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky Balboa is not a comeback movie. It is a mourning movie, about a man who fights because he cannot stand how still the house has become without Adrian.
Stallone's best directing choice is restraint. The street-corner speech Rocky gives his son about taking hits and moving forward lands because the film has spent an hour showing him take them, quietly, at Adrian's grave and on his tours of the places they used to go.
The fight is the footnote. The grief is the film.
2. Creed (2015)
Director: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad
Runtime: 133 min
US box office: $109.8 million ($174.2 million worldwide)
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Creed is the 2015 spinoff in which Adonis Johnson, Apollo Creed's son from an affair, leaves Los Angeles for Philadelphia and asks an aging Rocky Balboa to train him. Ryan Coogler directed it as his second feature after Fruitvale Station, and he rebuilt the franchise from the inside.
Michael B. Jordan plays a fighter who wants his father's name and resents needing it.
Stallone, playing Rocky through a cancer diagnosis, won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and earned an Oscar nomination 39 years after his first nomination for the same character. Adonis' first professional fight, staged by Coogler as a single unbroken take, is the best-filmed bout in the franchise.
Best for: the night before something you are scared to start.
The Screendollars Take
Creed is a sequel. It is a son's argument with a ghost, and Rocky is the only man alive who knew both of them.
Coogler builds the relationship from small exchanges: Adonis bargaining Rocky into chemotherapy, and a final climb up the museum steps that Rocky can barely finish. In every earlier film Rocky was the one being trained, carried or saved by his corner.
This time he is the one who needs a corner, and the kid gives him one.
1. Rocky (1976)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith
Runtime: 120 min
US box office: $117.2 million
Where to watch (US): Streaming with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription (also on AMC+). Rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
Rocky is the best Rocky movie and the best film in the franchise: Rocky Balboa, a small-time Philadelphia club fighter who collects debts for a loan shark, gets a shot at heavyweight champion Apollo Creed and sets himself one goal, to go the distance. Stallone wrote the script and refused to sell it unless he could play the lead, and John G. Avildsen directed it. The film earned ten Academy Award nominations and won three, for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing, with Stallone nominated for both Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
Talia Shire, Burt Young and Burgess Meredith were all nominated for their performances too. Rocky loses the fight on a split decision, and that is the whole point.
Best for: the big screen this week, or a cold morning with a run planned for after the credits.
The Screendollars Take
Rocky is only a one-part boxing movie. The real film is a love story between two shy people who have been told they are nobody, and the fight exists so Rocky can prove otherwise to himself before he says anything to Adrian.
Avildsen keeps the romance tiny: a Thanksgiving date at an empty ice rink, a pet shop counter, Adrian taking off her glasses. Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" made the museum steps famous, but the film's real climax is a battered man shouting a woman's name over a decision he does not care about.
He lost the fight and won everything else.
The Rocky Era (1976–2006): Stallone's Original Six-Film Arc
The Rocky era is the six films Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in between 1976 and 2006, a 30-year arc that follows Rocky Balboa from club fighter to champion to widower. Stallone directed four of the six (Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa), and John G. Avildsen directed the first and the fifth.
The first three Rocky films work as a trilogy about class: a man who cannot believe he deserves anything, then a man who suddenly has too much, then a man who earns his hunger back. Rocky IV and Rocky V turned the character into a symbol and then tried to turn him back into a person, with mixed results. Rocky Balboa closed the circle by bringing him home to the same Philadelphia streets, now emptier. Watched back to back, the six Rocky films run 635 minutes, or 10 hours and 35 minutes.
The cast is part of the arc. Burt Young played Paulie in all six Rocky films and died in October 2023 at 83. Carl Weathers played Apollo Creed in the first four and died on February 1, 2024, at 76. Talia Shire's Adrian appears in the first five, and Rocky Balboa is built around her absence. Stallone's wider career, from Rambo to Tulsa King, is covered in his Screendollars biography.
The Creed Era (2015–Present): How Michael B. Jordan Rebuilt the Legacy
Michael B. Jordan rebuilt the Rocky legacy by moving the franchise's center to Adonis Creed, Apollo's son, and by letting the Creed films fight about fathers instead of titles. Three directors made the three films: Ryan Coogler directed Creed, Steven Caple Jr. directed Creed II and Jordan directed Creed III.
Stallone played Rocky as Adonis' trainer in Creed and Creed II, and Creed III became the first film in the franchise without him on screen. The Creed trilogy has grossed $664.5 million worldwide, and Creed III's $276.1 million is the best of the three. Each film hands more of the story to Jordan, and by Creed III he is setting the franchise's terms himself, from the stylized final fight to the sign language Adonis shares with his deaf daughter, Amara.
The Creed films also pulled the series back toward real boxing culture, casting working fighters and staging bouts with broadcast-style coverage. For the boxing films that sit beside Creed and Rocky in the genre's top rank, see Screendollars' 20 Greatest Boxing Movies of All Time.
Where to Watch the Rocky and Creed Movies Right Now
All nine Rocky and Creed movies are streaming in the US with a Prime Video or Paramount+ subscription, and all nine can be rented or bought on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home. The six Rocky films are also streaming on AMC+.
If you would rather not add a subscription, Apple TV is the simplest route, because every film in the franchise rents or buys there. That includes Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, The Ultimate Director's Cut, which is not on any subscription service and is available only to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon and Fandango at Home.
The best way to watch Rocky this week is in a theater.
The 50th-anniversary 4K presentation from Amazon MGM Studios, Park Circus and Fathom Entertainment runs in US theaters through November 11, 2026.
What's Next for the Franchise? Rocky IV Director's Cut, Creed Spinoffs, and Beyond
The next Rocky story in theaters is I Play Rocky, which goes nationwide on November 20, 2026, while Creed IV, a Drago spinoff and a Creed television series are all in development with no release dates as of November 2026.
- Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, The Ultimate Director's Cut. Stallone's own re-edit of Rocky IV played in theaters for one night on November 11, 2021, and was released to rent the next day. It recuts the 1985 film with footage that never made the original release, and it is a companion to Rocky IV rather than a tenth film in this ranking.
- I Play Rocky. Directed by Peter Farrelly from a script by Peter Gamble, I Play Rocky stars Anthony Ippolito as the young Sylvester Stallone fighting to get Rocky made with himself in the lead. Amazon MGM Studios opened it in select theaters on November 6, 2026, ahead of its nationwide release on November 20.
- Creed IV. Michael B. Jordan said at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2026 that there is "definitely going to be Creed IV," as reported by The Ring. No director, cast or release date had been announced as of November 2026.
- Creed and Drago spinoffs. A Creed spinoff series for Prime Video was first announced in May 2025 under the title Delphi, and Jordan has since told Variety that it follows Adonis' daughter, Amara. A Drago spinoff, written by Robert Lawton and built around Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago and Florian Munteanu's Viktor Drago, has been in development at MGM since 2022, but Lundgren told UPI in January 2024 that plans for it were in flux while the studio focused on Creed IV.
- Stallone's future as Rocky. Stallone has not been confirmed for Creed IV. In a 2023 SiriusXM interview that recirculated in October 2026, he said he would make Creed IV with Jordan as long as longtime producer Irwin Winkler is not involved; the two have clashed for years over Stallone's lack of ownership of the character. Stallone has also said he has written another Rocky chapter about life outside the ring, though he described it as something he wrote for himself.
Final Verdict: The Single Best Film in the Rocky and Creed Saga
Rocky (1976) is the single best film in the Rocky and Creed saga. It won Best Picture, it set every rule the other eight films follow, and it is the only entry brave enough to let its hero lose the fight and still give him the happy ending.
Creed is the closest challenger, and on some nights it wins: it is better made, it gives its supporting characters more room, and it stages its fights with more invention. But Creed only exists because Rocky lost to Apollo Creed in 1976 and walked away happy anyway. Fifty years on, that ending is still the bravest choice the franchise has made, and this month you can see it in a theater again.
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