Top 25 Outdoor Movie: Rocky (Original 1976)

As we move down the Top 25 Outdoor Movies of All Time list, our next stop is Rocky, the 1976 movie that won three Oscars including Best Picture and made Sylvester Stallone’s career. Here is the original trailer for the film:

Rocky was written by and starred Sylvester Stallone, who plays Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer and collector for a loan shark in Philadelphia. Rocky gets the chance of a lifetime when the World Heavyweight Champion picks him to fight after his scheduled opponent is injured.

Rocky trains hard, practicing his punches on animal carcasses at the meat-packing plant where his friend works at night. Before the big fight, Rocky tells his girlfriend that all he wants is to go the distance with Creed — to last a full 15 rounds, a feat no boxer has managed against him.

Rocky is a film that will really bring out a big crowd and leave your community inspired. It’s rated PG for some violence and language, and is probably not for small children.

It would make a really great selection as a university or college campus movie, or for high school or youth groups. The film is well known enough that you’ll get a big crowd, but vintage enough that people won’t skip it because they’ve seen it recently.

There are excellent opportunities for pre-movie activities and themes. With the right resources (and donations from a few local businesses), you could set up inflatable fighting gear — even an inflatable boxing ring! Often your event producer (if you rent your equipment) will also rent out inflatable bounce houses and items like fighting rings.

This would be a really fun activity that helps create a thematic atmosphere for your outdoor movie screening — one your community members will remember.

If anyone has screened Rocky as an outdoor movie, we’d love to hear from you and share your story with the rest of the outdoor movie community! Email us at sales@openaircinema.us.