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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000000293 Tap to enlarge
MOVIERocky III
SCENEROCKY III Opening Credits
FILM FORMAT35MM
YEAR1982
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000000293
Film Record Public record
Directed by
Sylvester Stallone
Studio
United Artists · 99 min
Box office
$270M worldwide on a $17M budget
Honors
Golden Raspberry Award — 1 nomination
Scholarship
Named in the title of 1 peer-reviewed work
Examples
Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.

FILM NOTES

Rocky III arrived from United Artists in 1982, the third chapter in Sylvester Stallone's saga and the entry that pushed the series fully into pop culture spectacle. With Mr. T's Clubber Lang and a returning Apollo Creed sharpening the drama, the film paired Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" with Stallone's writing and directing hand, cementing Rocky Balboa as a defining figure of early-80s cinema. It was a commercial juggernaut, proof that the underdog story could keep reinventing itself for a new decade of moviegoing audiences everywhere across America.

This piece comes from the opening credits, the sequence that sets tone before a single scene of story unfolds. Collectors prize these segments because they carry the studio's branding, the first appearance of the film's identity, and the title design audiences saw before Rocky himself returned to screen. As a 35mm credits cell, it represents the picture's opening statement, the moment the franchise announced its third installment and invited audiences back into Rocky's world, a keepsake tied to the film's very beginning rather than any later scene.

This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000059603