Sylvester Stallone Thought His Career Was Over After This '90s Movie

Sylvester Stallone became a household name in the 1970s thanks to his leading role in the now-iconic 1976 boxing film "Rocky," which earned the action star two Academy Award nominations — one for acting and another for writing the screenplay. Stallone's momentum continued throughout the '80s, with the ambitious performer scoring yet another iconic starring role as John Rambo, alongside appearing in a number of successful "Rocky" sequels too. These days, his status as a Hollywood icon is unimpeachable, with Stallone landing his first lead TV role in 2021, thereby kickstarting a whole other era of his career, not to mention the action star's recurring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's somewhat surprising, then, that there was a period of time in the late 1990s and early 2000s where many, including the man himself, believed Stallone's career was effectively over. 

The "Creed" star hasn't been shy about naming the one film that he felt almost ended things for him: 1997's "Cop Land." The movie is far from egregiously terrible — quite the opposite, in fact. It was largely well-received by critics, with Stallone's surprisingly nuanced performance being one of the major points of praise. However, while it didn't exactly bomb at the box office, "Cop Land" didn't really move the needle financially, either. That wouldn't be so bad on its own, except that, at the time, it seemed to solidify a growing notion that Stallone just wasn't a big draw anymore. By that point, the '90s had already been kind of rough for him. While "Demolition Man" was successful, duds like "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" and "Judge Dredd" made "Cop Land" make or break — and it broke. As the man himself put it to Variety in 2019, "I loved the film, but it actually worked in reverse."

Sylvester Stallone's downfall from fame actually came about long after the release of "Cop Land." But he obviously couldn't have known that at the time. As the actor recalled during a 2025 interview with AARP, "Nobody wanted me after 'Cop Land.' Even my agents. I was fired from CAA. My personal manager at the time let me go. [...] For almost a decade, I couldn't find work." Mind you, Stallone did continue to work though, sadly, children's flicks like "Antz" and "Spy Kids 3-D" were unlikely to get him any Oscar nods. However, the "Rambo" star underwent a career renaissance in 2006 by returning to the role that made him famous. That year, he wrote, directed, and starred in "Rocky Balboa," the sixth "Rocky" film, which was widely praised as a welcome return to form for the beloved franchise. 

But as Stallone openly acknowledged, just getting the movie off the ground proved to be a fight in itself. "[T]here I am, 60 years old, and the previous one, 'Rocky V,' was an abject failure, so the original producers didn't want to do the sixth film," he pointed out. "They said, basically, 'Over our dead bodies.' Even my wife was going, 'I don't know if it's such a good idea.'" Mind you, Stallone understands their reticence. He used Al Pacino who, alongside Diane Keaton was also convinced he's lose his career at one point, as a prime example, admitting, "If Al Pacino said to me, 'I'm 82, and I want to play Michael Corleone,' I'd go [...] no. But I had no other choice." Given the success of "Rocky Balboa" and the "Creed" spinoff films, which did earn him another Oscar nomination, clearly it paid off.