From almost the second Sylvester Stallone revealed he was working on a Director’s Cut of Rocky IV, longtime fans of the classic cheesefest have been wondering how it would end up being released.
The entire eight-film extended franchise is available to stream on HBO Max, but MGM own the rights to new content featuring the Italian Stallion and the studio was recently purchased by Amazon, while re-editing old titles into something that technically hasn’t been seen before can often be a legal and contractual gray area.
However, Sylvester Stallone has now confirmed that his updated version of Rocky IV is getting a big screen rollout on November 11th, and also dropped a fresh poster for the epic showdown between the title hero and Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, which you can see below.
Rocky IV initially earned $300 million at the box office when it was first released in November 1985, and it would hold onto the title of being the highest-grossing straightforward sports film in history for almost 25 years until it was surpassed by Sandra Bullock’s The Blind Side, while the crown currently belongs to 2016’s Indian wrestling drama Dangal. But if the Director’s Cut can haul in an additional $40 million, then it’ll reclaim the top spot.
Whether it can reach those heights or not remains to be seen, when high profile re-releases can be very hit-or-miss in terms of how they fare with audiences. That being said, Rocky IV is arguably the most popular installment in the long-running series, and after almost a year and a half in the doldrums, you can guarantee there’s going to be a huge number of people desperate to visit their local multiplex as often as possible.