A box office knockout: 'Creed III' debuts to $58.7 million

Creed III punched above its weight at the domestic box office in its first weekend in theatres. The MGM release knocked Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania out of first place and far surpassed both industry expectations and the opening weekends of the first two movies in the franchise.

Playing in 4,007 locations in North America, Creed III earned an estimated $58.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Going into the weekend, analysts expected the film to open in the $30 million range. The first Creed debuted to $29 million in 2015 and Creed II opened to $35 million in 2018.

Michael B. Jordan made his directorial debut with Creed III, which pits his character Adonis against a childhood friend, Dame, played by Jonathan Majors. It’s the first in the Rocky/Creed films to not feature Sylvester Stallone, who chose not to return because of creative differences.

“This is beyond all of our expectations. And we knew that we had something special — we tested the movie and it tested great, but the public responded so resoundingly to it,” said Erik Lomis, MGM’s head of distribution. “Everything went right here starting with the movie itself ... It was just up to us not to break it when they gave it to us and we didn't.”

Strong reviews helped Creed III, which is currently sitting at an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.

It’s also the most expensive Creed film, with a reported production budget of $75 million, compared to the others which cost $35 million and $50 million. Internationally, Creed III earned $41.8 million from 75 markets, making its global debut $100.4 million.

It's a big moment for Amazon, who acquired MGM for $8.5 billion last year, and could have simply released Creed III on its streaming service with a limited theatrical run. But they chose theatrical, and it paid off.

“Amazon threw their weight behind this movie like only they can do,” Lomis said. “They supercharged the campaign with marketing support across all their verticals on the platform and beyond the platform. That shows a commitment to the theatrical business model from Amazon and MGM, which I think should be exciting to everybody.”

The company’s next major theatrical release is the Ben Affleck-directed Air, starring Matt Damon, out next month.

The success of Creed III bodes well for other releases coming in March, including John Wick Chapter 4 and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

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