Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by Starrone and Sylvester Stallone . [2] It tells the rags to rich American Dream story of Rocky Balboa , an uneducated but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia . Rocky starts out as a small-time fighter club , and later gets shot at the world heavyweight championship . The film stars Talia ShireAdrian, Burt Young and Adrian’s brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky’s trainer Mickey Goldmill , and Carl Weathers as the champion, Apollo Creed .
The film, made on a budget of just over $ 1 million, was a sleeper hit ; it earned $ 225 million in global box office receipts, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1976 , and went on to win three Oscars , including Best Picture . Stallone into a major star. [3] In 2006, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. Rocky is considered one of the greatest sports movies ever madeThe Rising Bull , by the American Film Institutein 2008, was ranked second in the genre .