Editing First Blood (section)

=== Post-production ===
The first rough cut of the film was between three and three-and-a-half hours long. According to Sylvester Stallone, it was so bad that it sickened his agent and him. Stallone wanted to buy the movie and destroy it thinking that it was a career killer. After heavy re-editing, the film was cut down to 93 minutes; this version was ultimately released in theaters.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGYN0DBRVjI|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/tGYN0DBRVjI|archive-date=December 22, 2021|url-status=live|title=First Blood DVD Commentary by Sylvester Stallone|date=July 19, 2014|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The ending used in the finished film was shot in March 1982, after the original one was deemed unsatisfactory.<ref>{{cite news|work=Ottawa Citizen|location=Ottawa, Ontario, Canada|title=News|date=March 12, 1982}}</ref>

Kassar and Vajna sought either [[Warner Bros.]], [[20th Century Fox]] or [[Paramount Pictures]] as a distributor, displaying an 18-minute promotional reel to studios. Although they secured international distributors, they were unable to locate a domestic distributor to the film until they sent a longer 55-minute reel to the [[American Film Market]]. After Warner Bros. and Paramount expressed interest, Orion Pictures agreed to the domestic distribution of the film.<ref name=":1" />