10 Movies That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Won)

8. Creed II

The last three Rocky movies have all leaned heavily into the general audience nostalgia for the series, admittedly, though Creed II took this to a risky, potentially self-parodying extent, yet one that impressively paid off.

While Rocky Balboa proved that Sly Stallone's most iconic creation could still be a charming underdog and Creed served as a poignant passing of the torch to Michael B. Jordan's titular character, Creed II bore all the hallmarks of a film allowing nostalgia and fan service to run amok.

Alarm bells started ringing when it was confirmed that the sequel would see Adonis (Jordan) facing off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Rocky's arch nemesis Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) from Rocky IV.

On paper, it's a premise that sounded more like an SNL skit than an actual, serious movie, and yet, director Steven Caple Jr. and a fantastic cast proved all the haters wrong.

Creed II ultimately worked the past into its plot in a genuinely sentimental and affecting way, by re-evaluating Ivan Drago through a contemporary lens and telling an unexpectedly affecting father-son story in the process.

More to the point, the film's masterstroke of an ending, where Ivan throws in the towel to save his son, was a fantastic feat of mature storytelling and smart character development.

The film certainly played a lot of familiar beats, but it did so with enough heart and intelligence that audiences didn't much seem to mind.

Ultimately it went on to gross $212.7 million, becoming the series' highest-grossing entry since Rocky IV. Despite how neatly the film tied everything off, a third film is currently in development.