Creed is a franchise that has always been successful but in the middle of the road. The movies are well-made and people like them, plus they don’t cost much to make, so they’ve done well. But kind of like John Wick, they’ve slowly built up a cult following with each installment doing better than the last at the box office, which is unusual, as most franchises run out of steam over time.
Creed is, of course, a spinoff of the Rocky franchise. Sylvester Stallone appeared in the first two installments, but he was notoriously left out of Creed III entirely. The actor/producer and those close to him attacked this film and its star Michael B. Jordan, who made his film directing debut with this picture.
But they hadn’t even seen the film nor did they know anything about it. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is 87%, which is solid, but its audience score is great at 96%. Exiting audiences gave it an A- via CinemaScore and its PotTrak score is 5 stars and 96% positive.
This movie was made under MGM after it was acquired by Amazon, so there was some chatter that this would go straight to Prime Video. Whether or not that was ever true, as part of the recent trend, Creed III was wisely released theatrically. Over three days, it made $58.6 million.
Creed III co-stars Jonathan Majors who is on a major roll right now. He plays a character named Damian Anderson who emerges from Adonis Creed’s past and returns with a grudge. That means that both the #1 and #2 movies feature Majors.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which features Majors as Kang the Conqueror, continues to slip. This weekend, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe generated $12.4M, down 61% from its sophomore frame which was itself down 70% from its opening weekend, when it took in $105.5M.
Coming in at #3 and holding quite well is Cocaine Bear, which only dropped 54% to earn $11M, bringing its running domestic total to $186.7M.
Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer Into the Swordsmith Village is the latest anime film to open in limited release and score with audiences. There is no Rotten Tomatoes critical score but its audience score is not that great at 69%. Its CinemaScore is B+ and it received a 74% via PostTrak, so the takeaway is that audiences don’t really love this one.
Still, its $10M take was enough to take the #4 spot. Rounding out the Top Five was last week’s surprise faith-based entry Jesus Revolution.
Here is the chart:
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- Creed III (UAR) – 3-day $58.6M/Wk 1
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Disney) – 3-day $12.4M/ Total $186.7M/Wk 3
- Cocaine Bear (Universal) – 3-day $11M/ Total $41.2M/Wk 2
- Demon Slayer Into the Swordvillage (Crunchyroll) – 3-day $10.1M/Wk 1
- Jesus Revolution (Lionsgate) – 3-day $8.65M/ Total $30.5M/ Wk 2
Next weekend’s big release is Scream VI. Last year’s Scream reboot reinvigorated the franchise. Is it strong enough to carry over to further installments? Will it be enough to take down Creed III?
It Girl Jenna Ortega returns as Tara Carpenter, with Melissa Barrera as her sister Sam, along with Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding as the twins Mindy and Chad Meekes-Martin. Legacy actors Hayden Panettiere and Courtney Cox return as Kirby Reed and Gale Weathers. As previously announced, Neve Campbell will not return as Sidney Prescott, making this the first time she has not appeared in the franchise.
What did you check out this weekend? What will you be seeing next weekend?
