The two producers were taking a big risk on the movie too. Before taking their newly purchased script to “United Artists”, they budgeted for around $2 million but because Stallone was playing the lead role (as opposed to a known actor such as their expected option of Robert Redford or Burt Renolds); United Artist came back with a budget of only $1 million. Anything over that became a personal liability to Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.

The two would mortgage their own homes to cover the final $100 thousand dollars for the films total cost of $1.1 million.