![Poster for Pushing the Boundaries: Rocky (1976) 4K Restoration](https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/130/2024/05/23225721/cqxg1CihGR5ge0i1wYXr4Rdeppu-1-scaled.jpg)
Pushing the Boundaries: Rocky (1976) 4K Restoration
Director: John G. Avildsen Run Time: 120 min. Rating: PG Release Year: 1976
Starring: Burgess Meredith, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire
Country: United States
Language: English
The 1970s: Pushing the Boundaries
A Film Center retrospective on the most groundbreaking films to come out of the 1970s.
See more Pushing the BoundariesAbout the film:
Rocky Balboa is a Philadelphia club fighter who seems to be going nowhere. But when a stroke of fate puts him in the ring with a world heavyweight champion, Rocky knows that it’s his one shot at the big time, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go the distance and come out a winner.
“an old-fashioned fairytale brilliantly revamped”
—Geoff Andrew, Time Out
With a budget of just $1.1 million, Rocky (1976) earned $225 million internationally at the box office and became the highest grossing film of 1976. The film also earned 10 nominations at the 1977 Academy Awards, including three wins: Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Director. With these nominations, Sylvester Stallone became the third person to be nominated for both acting and writing in the same year, following Charles Chaplin for The Great Dictator (1940) and Orson Welles for Citizen Kane (1941).
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About the filmmaker:
John G. Avildsen was an American director, editor, and producer. He began his career by working as an assistant director on a variety of films in the early 1960s while also working as a director of television commercials for an advertising company. His earliest films of note include Joe (1970), and Save the Tiger (1973). Avildsen is well known for directing the first three Karate Kid films, and in 1977 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on the Best Picture winner Rocky (1976).
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