Sylvester Stallone is thrilled Rocky Balboa outlived his portrayal.
The 67-year-old actor was celebrating the premiere of the Broadway adaptation of 'Rocky' - which is based on the 1976 film which he wrote and catapulted him to the spotlight - last night (13.03.14) at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.
He couldn't believe what a phenomenon the film turned out to be, and was thrilled that the character has proved so popular for so long.
Stallone told ABC News: "This is really surreal.
"It is one thing with the movie. We got lucky with that and we got lucky six times, but 15 years later, a Broadway show.
"It was one of those things where I got lucky it just happen to hit a nerve, and the character lived well beyond me."
Stallone admires the talent of theatrical performers, since they have a skill set which he lacks.
Last month he said: "I possess zero talent in singing or dancing. But I've always admired things I can't do."
The Hollywood hunk admits his version of boxer Rocky in the film is different to Andy Karl's "romantic" version on stage.
He explained: "My Rocky was more guttural, Andy's is a little more aware of his surroundings. He has a romantic quality, I think."
Stallone - who spawned the Oscar-winning film original and five sequels - was in high spirits at the event and got back into the ring, where he raised the show's star Andy's hand in the air at the curtain call in celebration of the musical when he celebrated the performance's first preview last month.

Andrew Scott says filming in loincloths helped 'The Stag' cast bond.
The 37-year-old actor plays best man Davin in the comedy and had a "laugh" while they filmed Fionan's (Hugh O'Conor) bachelor party weekend in Ireland despite the cold weather.
Talking to BANG Showbiz at the film's premiere in London's Leicester Square yesterday (13.03.14), he said: "We were given little bits of material to stretch over ourselves! We filmed it in the first week, it was a very good way of bonding with the cast. It was freezing, wet and cold and it was filmed in the Irish mountains, but it was a laugh, a really good laugh. There were six of us so we had to make it fun really."
Scott - who is best known for his role as villain Moriarty in 'Sherlock' - was excited to take on a comedy, after playing darker roles on screen, and is hoping the film will prove popular with audiences.
He added: "It's really nice to get back to working on comedy, that's actually one of the reasons I took the role, that's what I did in theatre and a little but on TV back in the day. That's what I love about this, it's hard to find something that witty without copying other films, it's very Irish script but it's one I think people with enjoy."
He stars alongside Amy Huberman who were also at the premiere, as were The Only Way Is Essex's James Locke, Danielle Armstrong and Elliot Wright, as well as EastEnders star Jacqueline Jossa.

Guy Pearce is in talks to star alongside Johnny Depp in 'Black Mass'. The 'Iron Man 3' actor is negotiating the role of Whitey Bulger's brother in the forthcoming drama, while 'The Lone Ranger' actor is tipped to star as the Boston crime kingpin-turne...

Led Zeppelin are set to release new material.
The band have scoured their archives for dozens of previously unheard studio and live recordings, which have been compiled and released as separate companion discs to accompany each of their re-mastered albums 'Led Zeppelin', 'Led Zeppelin II', and 'Led Zeppelin III', when they're released on June 3.
Guitarist Jimmy Page said: "The material on the companion discs presents a portal to the time of the recording of Led Zeppelin. It is a selection of work in progress with rough mixes, backing tracks, alternate versions, and new material recorded at the time."
The band - also comprised of bassist John Paul Jones and singer Robert Plant - have launched an extensive reissue program of all nine of their studio albums in chronological order, each remastered by Jimmy.
Highlights will include previously unknown track 'La La', which was recorded during the sessions for 'Led Zeppelin II', the band's iconic 1969 album.
The group, who have sold 300 million albums, have also recently agreed to add their music to the Spotify streaming service.
The news has sparked hope that the 'Whole Lotta Love' hitmakers might hit the road again for the first time since their 2007 reunion gig at The O2 arena - which saw Jason Bonham replace his late father John Bonham on drums.

Lady Gaga was vomited on during her performance at the South by Southwest festival.
The 27-year-old pop superstar took to the Doritos #BoldStage at SXSW in Austin, Texas, on Thursday night (14.03.14) and during her rendition of 'Swine' Gaga invited 'vomit painter' Millie Brown on stage.
Brown drank a bottle of green liquid and then pushed her fingers down her throat so she could puke the substance onto the singer as she played drums.
Gaga opened the show by roasting herself like a pig on a spit as her backing dancers stroked her with barbecue brushes.
The musician and another woman then straddled a mechanical pig which had a keyboard for Gaga to play, and after she finished performing on the pig performance artist Brown then began painting Gaga with black liquid.
The concert was held to celebrate her Born This Way Foundation with fans only earning entry by completing a Doritos Bold Mission.
Gaga took time out from her eccentric and extravagant performance to address her fans with some words of inspiration.
Before playing 'Dope', she said: "It's so much easier to be yourself than it is to be somebody else. Because then you have to pretend to be someone else and like things that you don't like and do stuff that you don't want to do."
Gaga is set to give the SXSW festival and conference's keynote speech this morning (14.03.14).
The year's event has been marred by tragedy after a car was driven into a group of revellers at approximately 12:30am on Thursday morning near the Mohawk club on Austin's Red River Street leaving two dead and 23 injured.
A spokeswoman for the Austin Police Department has revealed
Rashad Charjuan Owens - a 21-year-old man from Killeen, Texas - was being held in connection with the incident and is set to face two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault.

Britain's Princess Diana allegedly gave a royal phone book to the News of the World newspaper.
The late Princess of Wales reportedly gave the book of contact numbers to the now-defunct newspaper in a bid to "take on" her estranged husband, Prince Charles, the Old Bailey has heard.
Clive Goodman - who is the former royal editor for News of the World - told the phone-hacking trial that he received the book in 1992 because she wanted to make "an ally" in the press, and he denies claims that he paid for the books.
The princess - who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, a year after divorcing the prince - initially separated from the Prince of Wales in 1992 after 11 years of marriage and Mr Goodman claims she sent the book to the newspaper and it then ended up in his pigeonhole.
He told the court: "She was at the time going through a very, very tough time.
"She told me she wanted me to see this book, she wanted me to see the scale of her husband's staff and household, compared to the scale of hers.
"She was in a very bitter situation with the Prince of Wales at the time, she felt she was being swamped by the people close to him.
"She was looking for an ally and to take him on to show the kind of forces that were ranged against her."
Mr Goodman denies conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and claims he neither paid for the books nor received them from a public official, the trial continues.

Simon Cowell is launching a 'Dragons' Den' style gameshow.
The 54-year-old media mogul is said to be planning a new competition which will follow a similar format to the BBC's popular show, but will see the audience have a say in whether wannabe businessmen and women receive their dream investment.
A source close to Simon told The Sun newspaper: "This is a big new idea that one of Simon's young team dreamed up in the US.
"How often have you watched Dragons' Den and disagreed with the Dragons?
"This way the power won't lie with the business bigwigs but with the audience at home.
"After all, they are the people who will hopefully be buying whatever it is these entrepreneurs come up with - the show would do the market research."
Contestants will be given just two minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of "benefactors" before they are quizzed about their proposed products or services, but audiences will decide how much, if any, each of them should receive and at the end of each episode the person with the highest investment will receive £100,000 and a place in the final with the chance to win £1 million.
The latest idea from Simon's Syco company will be pitched to channels including ITV in the near future.

Lindsay Lohan has been branded a "train wreck" over her '2 Broke Girls' appearance.
The troubled actress shot a guest appearance on the show on Wednesday (12.03.14), but an unimpressed audience member said filming was a disaster because the star repeatedly messed her lines.
Writing on the Crazy Days and Crazy Nights blog, the audience member said: "Lindsay was a train wreck... you only want to watch so many collisions before you realize you have better things to do with your life.
"[We, the audience members] are very familiar with every single one of Lindsay Lohan's lines and can repeat them all verbatim to you because we heard them so many times last night. There is not a member of the audience who couldn't do a better job than Lindsay Lohan did last night."
According to the audience member, producers even began changing Lindsay's lines to make it easier for her.
The blog post continued: "Lindsay had a lot of trouble stringing together the various permutations required... the lines were reduced and reduced.
"There was no point in trying to get it all right because it was not going to happen."
And the insider hit out at the actress - who was cast as an indecisive bride who hires main characters Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs) to make her wedding cake - for damaging her voice with smoking and claimed she has undergone so many wrinkle-freezing Botox treatments she was unable to speak properly.
The post added: "Lips so plumped out she couldn't really get them open because of her Botox which also caused her to have trouble pronouncing certain words.
"Of course she won't be able to pronounce anything if she keeps smoking because her voice is rapidly disappearing into some type of screaming smoking raspy hell hole."
"There was a scene later on in the show that required Lindsay to say the words Hawaii and Bahamas in succession. She couldn't move her Botoxed muscles enough to get that combination down without pausing between each."

Lily Allen got into trouble when she tied up her dog outside Jay Z's dressing room.
The singer caused chaos backstage at London's Wireless festival in 2010 - where both she and the rapper were scheduled to perform - when she left her pet pooch Mabel outside the '99 Problems' hitmaker's VIP area.
She told BBC Radio 2: "At Hyde Park a couple of years ago I tied Mabel up outside my dressing room before going on stage. Jay Z's bodyguard came over and was like, 'You have to move that dog!' Jay Z and Beyonce are about to arrive.
"Then Jay Z walked through and was like, 'The dog is OK'. It was literally, 99 problems and the b***h ain't one."
Lily - who has daughters Ethel, two, and Marnie, 14 months with her husband Sam Cooper - is no stranger to controversy and recently took to Twitter to slam MTV for attempting to ban her new music video 'Our Time'.
The video shows her drinking from a flask in the back of a taxi before fighting with another version of herself dressed as a hot dog.
She angrily tweeted: "MTV want to ban the 'Our Time' video during the daytime, unless they get a clean edit that show you a) NOT DRINKING FROM A FLASK and b) NOT DISPLAYING ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR FROM DRINKING BY FIGHTING WITH THE HOT DOG. I told the label we are NOT making a clean version of the video. Bring on the controversy! (sic)"

Britney Spears joined sick children for art therapy earlier this week.
The 'Piece of Me' hitmaker - who has children Sean Preston, eight, and Jayden James, seven, with ex-husband Kevin Federline - took part in a collage-making exercise with youngsters at Children's Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday (11.03.14), and told the group she believes butterflies are her "guardian angels".
Working to the theme 'What it feels like to be away from home', the group sorted through magazines to and selected images that reminded them of home under the guidance of Art Therapist Nicole Albers.
Britney chose a photo of happy children to represent her boys, an image of a crawfish, which she said was her favourite food, and a butterfly.
She said: "Butterflies are our guardian angels."
The group decided to name their collective work 'Happiness' because when they think of family, that is how they feel.
After the therapy group, Britney spent time in the Heart Institute, the Medical/Surgical unit and the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases.
She later tweeted: "@ChildrensLA I had the best time, thank you for having me!! xox."

Seth Rogen finds it "depressing" that he's never smoked cannabis with James Franco.
While the pair starred alongside each other in hit 2008 stoner comedy 'Pineapple Express', the comic admits his hunky pal refrains from smoking the narcotic, but other stars such as Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd have joined him in lighting up.
In a candid interview with 'Watch What Happens Live', Seth said: "This is really depressing for me to say ... I've never smoked weed with James Franco because he doesn't smoke weed. That's why he's such a good actor! It's really sad, actually."
Quizzed who he has smoked the drug with, Seth revealed comedienne Sarah Silverman and 'Ant-Man' actor Paul have joined him "lots of times", while Oscar-nominated 'The Wolf of Wall Street' star Jonah has smoked with him a "few times".
But Seth wasn't able to convince his legendary 'Guilt Trip' co-star Barbra Streisand to join him for a smoke.
He lamented: "No, but we talked about it a lot. She smoked weed with Peter Sellers, though. That's the craziest s**t ever!"
The 31-year-old actor has even enjoyed marijuana with notorious weed lover, Snoop Lion.
He added: "Yeah, actually I have!"

Dexter Fletcher has withdrawn from the Freddie Mercury biopic. The 48-year-old actor and director has decided to abandon his role as director after a number of disagreements with GK Films' Graham King - who is making the film with Sony - over the unti...