Veteran Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone, in a recent Instagram story, accused Irwin Winkler, the producer behind Rocky films and its sequel series Creed of withholding a major financial stake in the franchise from him.
In the now deleted post, the 76-year-old actor shared an illustration of Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent. The caption of the post read: “A very flattering portrait of the great ‘Rocky’/’Creed’ producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country’s greatest.”
“After Irwin controlling ‘Rocky’ for over 47 years, and now ‘Creed’, I really would like to have at least a little [of] WHAT’S LEFT of my rights back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN — I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93-year-old gentleman? This is a painful subject that eats at my soul, because I wanted to leave something of Rocky for my children, but it’s always great hearing from the loyal fans… Keep Punching,” he said in the post.
According to a report in Variety, Stallone became vocal about his frustrations in the past few years. He often spoke about not having ownership over the popular franchises like Rocky that became popular because of him. He maintains that he has not been given an equity stake in the franchise.
In 2019, talking with the publishing house, Stallone had then expressed that he had “zero ownership of Rocky.” He also shared that an annuity that could be left to his children after his death was something he desired.
In the same year, Winkler also expressed that he was surprised to learn about Stallone’s dissatisfaction with his stake in the franchise. He also pointed out that the actor received more than $10 million in profit participation and upfront fees.
The 1976 film, Rocky was written by and starred Stallone. It went on to score Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Film Editing at the 49th Academy Awards.
