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National Film Vault

OFFICIAL FILM AUTHENTICATION BY CROWN GRADING
A
AUTHENTIC
CROWN CERTIFIED
Film cell NFV-000000312 Tap to enlarge
MOVIERocky III
SCENEClubber Lang
FILM FORMAT35MM
YEAR1982
CERTIFICATE IDNFV-000000312
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, the third chapter in Sylvester Stallone's boxing saga and the film that pushed the series from character drama into full spectacle. It paired Stallone's Rocky Balboa with Mr. T's star making turn and Hulk Hogan's brief appearance, while Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" became an era defining anthem. The picture cemented the franchise's commercial dominance through the eighties and remains a touchstone of studio filmmaking from that period, blending sports narrative with the decade's appetite for larger than life figures and triumphant, hard driving soundtracks.

This cell centers on Clubber Lang, the challenger whose menace and hunger for the title reshaped Rocky's world and forced him back into serious training. Mr. T's performance made Lang an instant pop culture fixture, and collectors seek frames tied to him for that cultural weight as much as the film's own history. A 35mm cell like this preserves a physical fragment of that theatrical run, a tangible piece of the print that once moved through projectors, connecting the character's presence directly to the era in which Rocky III became a defining blockbuster.

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 000059622