EXCLUSIVE: We hear that the pre-sales for United Artists Releasing’s Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, which will debut in Fathom locations on Nov. 11, are a pandemic record for the special events company, 120% ahead of the next closest title at the same point in time.
Stallone’s new cut has 40 extra minutes of never-before-seen footage of the 1985 sequel which finds Rocky Balboa in a U.S. vs. the Soviet Union Cold War boxing match against Mother Russia’s Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Stallone is also doing a live streamed Q&A in select Fathom locations, and there’s even a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the re-cut.
The original movie grossed $300.4M WW. At the time of its release, the sequel became the highest-grossing of all the Rocky films, as well as the highest-grossing sports drama in cinema for nearly a quarter-century. Stallone wrote, directed and starred in the film; the pic also starring Brigitte Nielsen, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Michael Pataki, Robert Doornick, Talia Shire, Stu Nahan and Tony Burton. Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff produced the feature, with Arthur Chobanian and James D. Brubaker serving as EPs.
Rocky vs. Drago will become available on-demand the day after it hits Fathom locations.
To date the biggest opening for a Fathom release is the January 2019 title BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul which debuted to $2.86M at 997 locations and made $3.5M domestic according to Comscore. This past weekend, industry estimates calculated that Fathom’s Saturday night presentation of Met Opera: Fire Shut Up in My Bones took in a robust $610K.
Tickets are on sale today, and a complete list of theater locations are available on the Fathom Events website.