Question for people who have seen this in the theater?

Not that I can recall. They pretty well set up Rocky losing the first fight with Clubber by having Mickey initially refuse to have anything to do with it, then showing Rocky's relaxed approach toward training (with Clubber training like a demon), and then of course, Mickey collapsing right before the fight began. I think most in the movie audience KNEW Rocky was going to lose - probably badly, thus setting up the rest of the film, and the climactic rematch with Clubber.

i was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and at that age you don't understand film narrative... You don't understand that in movies and plot arc, things get so unbearably bad for the protagonist, before he starts to get thing back on track....

And so seeing him lose.... and then Mickey dies the very next scene.... it was like the ultimate WTF? Pure negative emotion. I don't know how else to describe it.

Not until Apollo sneaks in to Mickey's gym and confronts Rocky, was i able to fathom... "ok,...maybe there's some hope here".....

I didn't see it in the theater; I saw it at my neighbor's house many times on HBO when they were first airing it in 1983 (I was 8 years old). Mr. T was all the rage at the time among the kids at school because of The A-Team, so I was rooting for him to win. I'd never even heard of Sylvester Stallone, but he looked like a wimp compared to Mr. T. When Rocky won the second fight I was irritated, and told everyone who would listen that Mr. T would have won in real life. After seeing the movie several times I warmed up to the idea of Rocky winning.