Sylvester Stallone saw Francis Ford Coppola break down crying after failed movie screening years before “The Godfather”

In his new memoir, Sylvester Stallone recalls a pre-fame encounter with Francis Ford Coppola.

The future Rocky star worked at a movie theater where Coppola's film The Rain People was playing.

Stallone says Coppola broke down after seeing that only a few people were there to watch the film.

Sylvester Stallone recounts in his new book that he saw a lot while working at a movie theater in the years before he made it big with Rocky.

"I remember we showed an indie film called The Rain People by a young director named Francis Ford Coppola," he writes in The Steps: A Memoir. "One night he came in to check on the crowd. 'How's the film doing?' he asked. 'Okay,' I answered. 'Okay? Mind if I look inside?' 'Sure.'

"I didn't have the heart to tell him that there were maybe eight people in the theater. It was so empty you could take a nap on the floor, and no one would notice," Stallone continues. "Coppola came out a few seconds later, emotionally distraught. He was tearing up as he rushed past me out the door. It's interesting to think about Francis Ford Coppola's journey. Here was a man who was completely devastated by the rejection of The Rain People, one of his earliest films, but two years later he made The Godfather. A masterpiece. I still wonder if it was the lessons he learned from The Rain People that helped him make such a great film."

Francis Ford Coppola wins at the Oscars for 'The Godfather' franchiseCredit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Marital drama The Rain People, which starred James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Shirley Knight, came out in 1969.

Stallone notes in his book that it was one of those movies that "failed to move people."

Coppola's next film was the first installment of the Corleone family saga. The Godfather, which was released in 1972, cleaned up at the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Mario Puzo, the author of the book the movie's based on.

Stallone has said he was rejected as an extra in The Godfather because he wasn't Italian enough. But the actor, of course, had his own hit in 1976, when his movie about an underdog boxer debuted.

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While promoting his book this month, Stallone paid tribute to his time at the movie theater via Facebook.

"I made $34 a week as a movie theater usher and probably learned more about filmmaking there than I could have in any classroom," he wrote. "I studied EVERYTHING, then went home and filled hundreds of notebooks trying to learn how to write. There are no shortcuts to learning your craft...you have to put in the work!"

The Steps: A Memoir is out now.

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