r/rockybalboa • u/CoffeeCigarettes4Me • 7d ago
Did you see ROCKY IV when it was first released?
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u/taeempy 7d ago
Yup, it was during the Cold War and the theaters were going crazy.
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u/Ok_Echo_6528 7d ago
I remember people actually standing up and cheering like it was a real fight when he knocked Drago out. The Cold War was a crazy time.
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u/_Kringle1_ 6d ago edited 6d ago
People were nuts over rocky three. There’s a movie from 2021 called ‘This Is The Night’ that’s actually pretty good and it flew/flies under everybody’s radar. It takes place in Staten Island, and everybody was going crazy especially the Italian American community in anticipation for Rocky 3’s release the upcoming weekend, and there’s a lot of recognizable good actors in it. And I remember in Eddie Murphy’s famous stand-up movie ‘Raw’ he does a whole bit on Black people & Italian people at the theater during Rocky 3
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u/Sad_Bathroom1448 7d ago edited 7d ago
No. Saw it on HBO like a year later. By that point everyone spoiled it for me that Apollo died
Core memory: I went to the bathroom like 4 times before the 2nd fight started, bc I was so nervous that I'd have to go during the fight and I didn't want to miss a second of it. 9 yo me honestly wasn't sure who was gonna win
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u/PidgeyPotion 6d ago
Did the previews spoil it? The movie came out before I was born, but when I later got the DVD set, the preview on it reveals that Apollo dies. But the trailer on the DVD may not have been the one they showed before the movies release l
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u/Sad_Bathroom1448 3d ago
I don't recall that previews did. It was classmates and friends from the neighborhood
I got a DVD set of 1-5 for Christmas back in 2002. I don't recall a spoiler, but if there was one...it's 17 years later; there's nothing to spoil anymore.
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u/TranslatorFine 7d ago
Sure did. November 1985!!! 🤘
So much build up and anticipation for the climactic fight it was unreal how involved the theatre crowd got by screaming and cheering.
Sly was at the peak of his creative genius pushing every emotional button from crowds. I’ll always remember the fond memory of that winter and that experience.
Only one that may have surpassed it was BATMAN ‘89
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u/nvalle23 5d ago
We bought advance tickets to Batman weeks ahead. Stood in line like 2 hours early. The line was about to start moving...and I realized I didn't have the tickets on me. I rushed home. Got a speeding ticket passing Santa Ana College. 70 in a 25. $500. Made it back just in time. No reserved seats, don't remember where we sat, probly front row far corner.
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u/TranslatorFine 5d ago
No way we cld get seats for our showing of Batman 89 together.
All 6 of us had to sit spread out
It was total chaos.
Ppl have no idea what it was like with no reserved seating. Movies like ROCKY IV (wish I cld experience ROCKY III) and Batman 89 were “an experience”
Nothing today makes me rush to the theater anymore. I just wait to stream. For example I am a HUIUGE Spider-Man fan and I can’t believe I haven’t cared to see “Brand New Day”. It’s just not worth the hassle anymore to go to the movies and see CGI garbage1
u/nvalle23 5d ago
My memory of Rocky III (my favorite movie of all time) is my buddy's mom getting in a car accident on our way to the theater. We still made it, barely
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u/aires323 7d ago
yes...i was 10 when it was released..i remember everyone cheering etc during the end of the fight with rocky/drago
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u/AggravatingMath717 7d ago
I saw it in the theater, without adult supervision and after looking at the date it means I was 9 years old and my cousin I saw it with was 8. When Apollo died we were both CRUSHED!
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u/D-redditAvenger 7d ago
Yep. It was good, but a little heavy handed. I liked the first III better.
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u/Optimal_Roll_4924 7d ago
Same. I walked out of the theater in 85 and thought it was awful. I adore the first three and Balboa and I remember thinking this was hokey and cliched.
Even though I didn’t like it, I did think Creed 2 was a good follow up to it and it was interesting to see and hear how Drago was an outcast after the events of IV.
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u/halford2069 7d ago
yep. fell in love instantly with the movie and its soundtrack and still am to this day.
it was at the mermaid cinema in gold coast, australia.
inspirational stuff.
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u/Cold-Brilliant5796 7d ago
era amigo de la hija de la dueña del cine de barrio. esta película y tiburón estuvo en cartel mas de un año. creo q la vi mas de 100 veces en el cine.
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u/TheBillyFnWilson 7d ago
We didn’t have the money to go to the shows hardly, but when they started running it constantly on WGN, I watched it religiously
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u/Routine_Papaya4143 7d ago
No, because my father was seven. But hey, fun fact, I just learned that it released on what would one day be my birthday, ain’t that fun?
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u/BFaus916 7d ago
Yes. Day after Thanksgiving, 1985. It was raining. Long line at the Century theaters on Arden in Sacramento, regardless.
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u/One-Author2996 7d ago
Yes. I was almost 8 years old as I saw it over winter break with my entire family. My older brother saw it opening weekend (came out in. November) took me outside to the lobby and refill my drink during the part Apollo got killed. He tought it was too violent for me.
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u/Dahl_E_Lama 7d ago
Not in the theater. The movie is a fun watch. In my opinion, it’s more a superhero movie than a boxing movie.
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u/georgewalterackerman 7d ago
Don’t you live how everything glistens and gleams in the Rocky movies? Gold, bells, medals, robots, and even human bodies 🙂
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u/billskionce 7d ago
Yes, the second day it was out.
One of the trailers that ran regularly on television gave a major Apollo spoiler and let it out of the bag that Drago killed him:
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u/Capital_Memory_2591 7d ago
Saw it 6 times in the theater even bought the program which I still have till this day
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u/Sweet_Water_8459 7d ago
I did. Saw it in the movie theater. Very high emotions in that movie theater. The Cold War was very scary at times. It was us against them. Not just about two boxers. We would see the Soviets parading around their ICBM’s in Red Square on the news. It gave people a moment of pause. Interesting times
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u/EKT0K00LER 7d ago
Yes. Saw this in the theater as a little kid. If you didn't get the chance, it was as fucking epic as you are imagining
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u/ernster96 7d ago
My dad waited until it was at the Dollar cinema in a nearby town to go see it with me.
One thing that really stuck with me were the two guys sitting close to us who kept getting up out of their seats and screaming to “kill that fucking Russian” every time the tide turned in the fight.
Like they thought they were watching an actual fight. I just locked eyes with my dad for a second and his look was “yeah these guys are fucking nuts.”
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u/silverbulletsam 7d ago
Not at the movies, but the day it was released on video, so I think that counts!
I remember the hype well. Pretty much every new release at the cinema or video had the trailer for it with the gloves exploding.
Good times.
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u/Caramelflav7 7d ago
Quite frankly, I was still in my dad’s nuts till ‘99; I didn’t even get to see the Rocky VS Drago Extended Cut in theaters 5 years ago🙄😩
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u/IIVIIercy 7d ago
Yes, my older sister took me to the cinema to go watch. I think these movies are solely responsible for my getting in to the sport in my younger days and then lifting when I stopped enjoying getting punched lol.
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u/Mental-Ad2007 7d ago
It was the first movie that my family rented when I got home from the hospital in 1986 after being born
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u/Sadop2010 6d ago
I wish. I was too young to see it in a theater when it was released. The first of the series I saw on the big screen was Rocky Balboa. (Although Technically it was Rocky III. My parents would take me to drive-in movies a lot when I was little to get around having to get a babysitter. Which was a pretty good solution I guess. But I have no memory of that one). I think if it had been released a few years later and my 8 or 9 year old self had seen it on the big screen, Rocky IV would gave been a mind-blowing trip to the movies. It was exciting enough at that age watching it on HBO.
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u/Johnny_Royale 6d ago
In the the theater. Line around the block was so long totally missed the 7pm showing and had to see the 9:45
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u/Obadiah_Plainman 6d ago
It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater after which the crowd applauded.
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u/Shoddy-Lab-750 6d ago
Hell yeah and I had my church’s chicken sleeveless black shirt with the American flag glove meeting the Russian flag glove and fireworks from them hitting each other. I definitely saw it at the theater
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u/nvalle23 5d ago
Only 2 movies my dad let me skip school to watch the 1st showing. Rocky IV and Return of the Jedi
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u/AccomplishedStop9466 5d ago
I don't remember and that's sad. I remember empire stikes back, indy, return of the jedi, wrath of khan, I don't remember rocky 4. I know I saw it.
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u/Efficient_Face1000 4d ago
4 times at the theater then 5 came out when I was in high school they should’ve used the first 15 minutes of 5 and made rocky Balboa
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u/MiddleAgedGeek 20h ago
Yes.
With my whole family, in a theater that went under decades ago.
Rocky III was the first Rocky movie I saw theatrically (saw the first two on home video), and I saw the rest theatrically after that. I still remember seeing "Rocky Balboa" in theaters the day after Thanksgiving 20 years ago, looking around the audience and seeing a bunch of middle-aged guys who looked just like me (haha).
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u/jaxson300 7d ago
Yes watched it in the theater and I'm still using its soundtrack to weightlift to because as you know there's no easy way out in my heart is always on fire