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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000000302 Tap to enlarge
MOVIERocky III
SCENEApollo Creed & Rocky Running
FILM FORMAT35MM
YEAR1982
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000000302
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 in 1982 from United Artists as the third chapter in Sylvester Stallone's boxing saga, following the champion's fall from complacency and his climb back through hardship and humility. The franchise had become a cultural fixture by this point, and this installment introduced Clubber Lang as a fearsome new threat while reshaping Apollo Creed's role from rival to ally. The film's blend of drama, training sequences, and heart cemented its place in the series' legacy and in the broader landscape of early eighties studio filmmaking.

This cell captures Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa running together, a moment that marks their shift from adversaries to partners in Rocky's fight to reclaim his title. Creed remains one of the most collected figures from the series, admired for his charisma and complicated history with Rocky. A training sequence like this speaks to the film's central theme of renewal through discipline and camaraderie. As a piece of 35mm film, it preserves a physical fragment of that collaboration, a tangible artifact from a defining chapter in the Rocky story.

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 000059612