In 1975, Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, made Philadelphia famous by running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and raising his arms in triumph in Rocky. Philadelphia soared again, with Rocky II in 1978. Shortly thereafter, Brian De Palma made two films in Philadelphia, Dressed to Kill (1979) with Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson, and Blow Out (1980) starring John Travolta. The film industry continued to return to Philadelphia shooting many popular movies including Taps (1981), Rocky III (1981), Trading Places (1982), and Witness, (1984) winner of two Academy Awards
Filmmaking in the Philadelphia region had reached an all time high. But this was only the beginning. In 1985, the Philadelphia Film Office was created to market the City of Philadelphia and its surrounding region to the film and television industry. In 1992, with the mayoral appointment of Sharon Pinkenson as its Director, the Film Office became a regional economic development agency representing the five surrounding counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia. Today, Pinkenson serves as Executive Director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, a non-profit corporation launched on July 1, 2000.
Since its inception, the Film Office has attracted many feature films to the area. Most notably, Mannequin (1986), Rocky V (1990), the Academy Award winning movies The Age of Innocence (1992) and Philadelphia (1993), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Beloved (1997), as well as movies directed by Philadelphian M. Night Shyamalan including The Sixth Sense (1998), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), and The Village (2003)
