Sylvester Stallone came to New York with little money and aspirations of becoming a Hollywood star.
He had just $60 at the time, with $43.60 already put aside for rent. Stallone says he survived on $1 or $2 a day for food and earned $34 a week, according to Fox News.
These difficult years ultimately contributed to Stallone’s creation of Rocky Balboa, the fictitious boxer whose battle became one of Hollywood’s most enduring franchises.
That makes Stallone’s narrative more than just nostalgic 50 years later. It’s also a tale of intellectual property that Amazon (AMZN) still finds valuable.
“Rocky” and “Creed” were part of MGM’s catalog, along with “RoboCop” and the James Bond movies, which Amazon acquired for $8.45 billion. At the time, Amazon claimed that MGM had more than 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows in its repertoire.
Additionally, Amazon continues to invest in the “Rocky” world.
Prime Video is bringing “Creed” to television, and a new Amazon MGM Studios film depicting Stallone’s struggle to create the original picture will be released this fall.
Stallone stretched almost every dollar before “Rocky”
Some of the nuances that subsequently gave the character Rocky Balboa a genuine feel came from Stallone’s early years in New York.
“I could never afford to go to a laundromat,” Stallone told Fox News. To wash everything at once, Stallone would take a shower while wearing his shirt, pants, underwear, and socks.
Similar ingenuity was needed for food. During the colder months, he used his windowsill as a makeshift refrigerator and sometimes depended on cottage cheese and three or four raw eggs.
Eventually, that specific behavior made its way into the big screen. One of the most well-known moments from the 1976 film is Rocky consuming raw eggs, but Stallone’s new book, “The Steps,” reveals that the concept was inspired by his own financial situation.
His work history was equally colorful. As a theater usher, Stallone earned $34 per week. He studied movies during his shifts, using them as an informal sort of film education. He also worked nights at a delicatessen and cleaned lion cages at the Central Park Zoo.
The situation is entirely different from Amazon’s contemporary streaming business. However, the persona Stallone created based on his life experiences turned out to be precisely the type of enduring intellectual property that media firms now value.
Amazon paid billions for MGM’s Hollywood library
Decades later, Amazon connected Stallone’s narrative to its brand.
In 2021, the digital behemoth said that it would buy MGM for $8.45 billion, and Amazon specifically mentioned “Rocky” and “Creed” as two of MGM’s main properties.
When the deal concluded in 2022, MGM joined Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
That does not imply that “Rocky” cost Amazon $8.45 billion. MGM produced thousands of movies, TV shows, and other significant franchises.
However, the movie serves as an example of how vintage Hollywood libraries may remain profitable long after the original film has left cinemas.
Decades later, successful intellectual property may lead to new projects, television series, licensing, streaming engagement, and sequels.
With the franchise, Amazon is already doing that.
Amazon is still finding new ways to monetize “Rocky”
“I Play Rocky” will be released in November via Amazon MGM Studios.
The film is based on the true tale of an unknown Stallone trying to pitch the movie and insisting on playing the main role himself.
It will run in select theaters beginning Nov. 6 and be released more widely later that month, almost precisely 50 years after the original “Rocky” launched, Amazon said.
The timing is a rare chance for Amazon. Stallone’s new biography is bringing the real-life tale behind “Rocky” back into the public debate, just as Amazon is preparing to offer moviegoers its own dramatized version of that narrative.
The company is also growing the fictitious world. Prime Video has given a series order to “Delphi,” the first live-action series based in the “Creed” world.
The series will focus on teenage boxers training at the Delphi boxing club, with Michael B. Jordan attached as an executive producer. Amazon reported that “Creed III” made $275 million worldwide and was the franchise’s top-grossing picture.
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This shows how Amazon can make money from MGM’s catalog, and not just by putting older films on Prime Video.
Familiar brands may fuel theatrical releases, streaming series, and advertising inventory, while offering fans one more incentive to stay within Amazon’s entertainment ecosystem.
This year, Amazon assured shareholders that it remains committed to Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios as part of its larger entertainment company.
Stallone’s struggle became intellectual property that still pays
Clearly, for Amazon investors, “Rocky” is a minuscule portion of a media giant that did more than $700 billion in sales last year.
One movie franchise won’t define where Amazon stock is headed. The more relevant lesson is what “Rocky” reveals about the economics driving Amazon’s MGM acquisition.
Amazon didn’t simply purchase a number of old movies. It got stories and characters that can be turned into fresh content again and again.
Amazon MGM is producing a movie about how Stallone made “Rocky,” while extending the “Creed” world for Prime Video 50 years later. That’s the type of durability that makes established intellectual property appealing to major media companies.
And the difference is stark.
Stallone reportedly washed his clothes in the shower because it cost too much to go to the laundromat. The character shaped by those years later became part of a Hollywood library Amazon valued highly enough to spend $8.45 billion acquiring.
For Stallone, “Rocky” changed a career. For Amazon, the story remains an asset it can still put back to work.
