Creed III won big at the box office, setting a new opening weekend record for the franchise.
Creed III has over exceeded its box-office expectations on its opening weekend to earn $58.7 million in North America and $41.8 internationally, making it not only the biggest opening for a film in the Creed trilogy, but apparently the biggest domestic opening for a sports movie ever.
The film shattered expectations with an estimated 3-day opening of $58.6 million, according to Comscore. The sports drama played in 4007 theaters across the U.S. and Canada, ringing up an impressive $14,639 per screen average.
Going into the weekend, analysts expected Creed III to open in the $30-million range, but moviegoers had other ideas.
“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,” Erik Lomis, MGM’s head of distribution, said in a statement.
The film, which marks Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut, stars Jordan alongside Jonathan Majors as childhood friends who settle old scores in the ring.
The cast also includes Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, and Mila Davis-Kent.
In comparison to Creed III‘s debut, Creed opened in 2015 with a three-day total of $29.6 million. Creed II debuted in 2018, with a weekend opening of $35.5 million.
This latest installment is the only entry in the Rocky/Creed family not to feature Sylvester Stallone, who opted out of Creed III over creative differences.
Strong reviews helped boost the new film’s fortunes.
It has an A- CinemaScore with audiences, and an 87 percent score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Positive word of mouth likely drew more moviegoers.
Creed III opens at a critical juncture for MGM and parent Amazon as they plot an expanded film footprint.
The Creed series has been one of MGM’s most important modern-day franchises, and the third installment isn’t disappointing. It is more than holding when compared to the first two films, and will easily score the biggest first-weekend opening of the spinoff franchise, fueled by top exit scores on PostTrak and an A- CinemaScore (not to mention glowing reviews). Males, both younger and older, made up 62 percent of an ethnically diverse audience (39 percent Latino, 27 percent white, 20 percent Asian/other and 14 percent Black), according to PostTrak.
