What year was the first Rocky film released?

The first Rocky film was released in 1976.

Rocky premiered at New York’s Paramount Theatre on November 20, 1976, before receiving its wide North American release on December 3. The film stars Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, a small-time Philadelphia boxer who receives an unlikely chance to fight heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.

Stallone wrote the screenplay in only a few days in 1975 and insisted on playing the lead role, even after being offered a much larger payment to sell the script without starring in it. Made for a budget of roughly $1 million, Rocky became the highest-grossing film released in North America in 1976.

The film received 10 Academy Award nominations and won three, including Best Picture. A frequent mix-up is 1977, the year of the Academy Awards ceremony, rather than the film’s release year. Rocky launched a long-running franchise and helped make Philadelphia’s Rocky Steps an iconic landmark.