How Many Rocky Movies Are There? All Nine Films From 1976 to 2023

There are nine Rocky movies including Creed: six films that follow Rocky Balboa from 1976 to 2006 and three Creed films that follow Adonis Creed from 2015 to 2023. Cinvibe counts all nine as one franchise, because Rocky Balboa himself walks into the first two Creed films, and Apollo Creed's name links the whole run together.

The nine films reached US theaters in this order, each with its director and runtime. If you want the same films arranged for a first viewing, the Rocky movies in order guide covers release order and chronological order.

1. Rocky (1976), directed by John G. Avildsen, opened nationwide on December 3, 1976 and runs 120 minutes.
2. Rocky II (1979), directed by Sylvester Stallone, arrived on June 15, 1979 and runs 119 minutes.
3. Rocky III (1982), directed by Stallone, arrived on May 28, 1982 and runs 99 minutes.
4. Rocky IV (1985), directed by Stallone, arrived on November 27, 1985 and runs 91 minutes.
5. Rocky V (1990), directed by Avildsen, arrived on November 16, 1990 and runs 104 minutes.
6. Rocky Balboa (2006), directed by Stallone, arrived on December 20, 2006 and runs 102 minutes.
7. Creed (2015), directed by Ryan Coogler, arrived on November 25, 2015 and runs 133 minutes.
8. Creed II (2018), directed by Steven Caple Jr., arrived on November 21, 2018 and runs 130 minutes.
9. Creed III (2023), directed by Michael B. Jordan, arrived on March 3, 2023 and runs 116 minutes.

Rocky IV is the shortest at 91 minutes, and Creed (2015) is the longest at 133, so no entry in the saga asks for more than two hours and thirteen minutes of your evening.

The eight Rocky movies are the six Rocky films plus Creed (2015) and Creed II (2018), and the count reached nine when Creed III opened in March 2023. Seven was the count between November 2015 and November 2018, after Creed (2015) arrived and before Creed II followed it. Six is the count if you only include films with Rocky in the title, which stops at Rocky Balboa in 2006. As such, the number depends on whether you include the Creed films and on the date you count from.

Rocky 6 is Rocky Balboa (2006), directed by Sylvester Stallone, and there is no film titled Rocky VII. The same goes for searches for Rocky Balboa 6: no separate film carries that label. The seventh film in release order is Creed (2015), which hands the story to Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed while Stallone returns as Rocky in a supporting role, and he appears again in Creed II. Stallone does not appear in Creed III, which Jordan directed.

Rocky Balboa, Apollo Creed and the Drago family tie the nine films together, along with the actors who play them. Stallone plays Rocky Balboa in all six Rocky films and in Creed (2015) and Creed II. Burt Young plays Paulie in every Rocky film, and Carl Weathers plays Apollo Creed in the first four. Talia Shire plays Adrian through Rocky V. Mr. T is Clubber Lang in Rocky III, and Dolph Lundgren is Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and again in Creed II. His on screen son, Viktor Drago, is played by Florian Munteanu in Creed II and Creed III. The Creed films belong to Adonis Creed and Bianca, played by Jordan and Tessa Thompson. For the full lists, see the Rocky characters and Rocky cast pages.

Rocky IV is the highest earner in the saga, with about $300 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Creed III is next among the later films at roughly $276 million, just above Rocky III at about $270 million. The original Rocky (1976) earned about $225 million on a budget of $1 million, according to The Numbers, which is a remarkable return for a boxing drama. Rocky V is the lowest at around $120 million. The Rocky box office page has every budget and gross, and the Rocky movies ranked page gives our own order of the nine.

In my opinion, the saga is easiest to understand by who sat in the director's chair, because the count of nine splits into three distinct hands. Avildsen directed Rocky (1976) and Rocky V, so the series opens and closes its first act with the same Philadelphia street level eye. Stallone directed four of the six Rocky films, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa, and it could be argued that this is why the middle of the run feels like one long argument between Rocky and his own success, from the Clubber Lang trouble of Rocky III to the Drago bout in Rocky IV.

Rocky Balboa shows the Stallone approach at its most hands on. Fight shooting began on December 4 in Las Vegas after Stallone broke a foot, and the bout was shot to look like an HD broadcast, with Antonio Tarver's knockdown of Stallone kept in the cut. Compare that with Rocky IV, the shortest film at 91 minutes, which spends its running time building one set piece around Drago.

The Creed films hand the chair to a new generation. Coogler directed Creed (2015) and cast three working pro boxers, Andre Ward, Tony Bellew and Gabriel Rosado, and Bellew has described a crowd shoot at Goodison Park for the film. Caple took over for Creed II, with Coogler moving to an executive producer role, and Jordan stepped behind the camera for Creed III with Stallone involved as a producer only. That being said, the budgets tell the same story of growth: Rocky (1976) cost $1 million, Creed (2015) cost $35 million, and Creed III cost $75 million. My pick for the best way in is still the first Rocky and then Creed (2015), because those two share the same quiet, character first spine.

There is no tenth Rocky or Creed film with a release date, and Creed 4 is in development. Producer Irwin Winkler said at a Los Angeles film event on November 18, 2023 that Creed 4 is being planned and that Michael B. Jordan will direct, as TheWrap reported. That was a producer's statement and not a studio announcement, and no greenlight, start date or release date has been reported since. The latest on Creed 4 is tracked on its own page.

One Rocky related release does carry a date, but it is not a sequel. I Play Rocky is an Amazon MGM Studios film about the making of Rocky (1976), directed by Peter Farrelly. It is set to open in US theaters in November 2026, with a wide release reported for November 20, 2026. Because it tells the story behind Rocky (1976) and does not add a chapter for Rocky Balboa or Adonis Creed, it is not counted among the nine films.

If you are ready to start, where to watch Rocky covers streaming in the US, UK and Australia, and the Rocky timeline lays out the story beat by beat. Go back to the Rocky movies hub for everything else.