With a remarkable opening of $58.7 million, “Creed III” broke the franchise record and knocked off “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which had been the domestic box office top grosser for two consecutive weeks.
In the film, Michael B. Jordan plays the character of Adonis Creed who is a heavyweight boxing champion and the son of the renowned Apollo Creed.
Adonis is accompanied by his childhood friend and now a rival, played by Jonathan Majors. The movie marks the first installment in the series where Sylvester Stallone, who initially portrayed the role of Rocky Balboa and later acted as a mentor to Adonis in the spinoffs, did not appear.
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Despite his absence, the film was successful in terms of ticket sales. The global box office earnings of the movie reached an impressive $100.4 million, starting with an international opening of $41.8 million.
This is remarkable since the estimated earnings for “Creed III” were expected to range between $36 million to $40 million.
“Creed III” also benefitted from pricier Imax tickets (a huge 38% of business came from premium large format screens), as well as a better-than-expected turnout on Friday with $22 million alone.
“Michael did an excellent job launching this film and, in doing so, offering further proof that the box office is back and ready to support this year’s strong, diversified slate,” Imax CEO Rich Gelfond.