I acknowledge that Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith and Burt Young were all established actors in Rocky, but I would argue that none of them were household names with anything approaching box office draws.

Rocky has got to be part of this conversation because now I am wondering what films with the lowest actor name recognition has ever been more successful than Rocky with Box Office and Critical Acclaim (11 Oscar NOminations and best picture win!). Anything else come to mind?

That being said Howsiya's point is well taken and that's a slightly different question and conversation.

I said Indepedent film in my original post because I assumed that no studio film meets the criteria and Rocky is the best example of coming closest to being no name and the story about how hard it was to get made proves that its an exception to the rule about studio films and star power.




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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"