'Creed III' Tops Weekend Box Office With Franchise's Best Numbers Yet

It was a good weekend for Michael B. Jordan, MGM Pictures, and United Artists Releasing. The new franchise sequel, "Creed III," topped the box office with an estimated $58.37 million, a new record for the franchise, per Box Office Mojo.

The sequel marked a major transition for the franchise, with star Michael B. Jordan taking over behind the camera. The first "Creed" movie, released in 2015, was directed by Ryan Coogler. Its 2018 sequel, "Creed II," was directed by Steven Caple Jr. The new film marked Jordan's feature directorial debut. Coogler has stayed on board the franchise as a co-writer and producer for "Creed III."

Besides Jordan taking on the directing role, "Creed III" is also the spinoff series' first installment without Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa. Stallone made his last appearance as the character in "Creed II." So this was technically the first "Rocky" film series installment that did not have a Rocky appearance. The good news for "Creed" is that these numbers show that the films can move on without Stallone as Jordan has taken front and center with the franchise.

For comparison, the first "Creed" movie had an opening weekend three-day weekend of $29.6 million for a five-day Thanksgiving weekend total of $42 million. The film went on to finish with a $109 million domestic take and $173.5 million worldwide. "Creed II" later opened on Nov. 21, 2018 with a three-day opening weekend of $35.5 million and $56 million for the five-day holiday weekend. It later saw a finish of $115 million domestically and $214 million worldwide.

So there's been growth in the box office behind the franchise. "Creed III" now stands to outgross the past two features. While the franchise has historically done well with critics, the threequel scored an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 83% for "Creed II."

Coming in at No. 2 this weekend was Marvel's "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania." The film had another sizable dropoff this weekend, falling 59.9% to make $12.8 million over the weekend. That brings its current domestic total to $187.1 million and $420 million worldwide.

"Quantumania" will still likely outgross the sequel's franchise best of $216 million domestically for 2018's "Ant-Man and The Wasp." It remains to be seen if "Quantumania" can outreach the second film's worldwide take of $622 million.

Last weekend's breakout hit, "Cocaine Bear," came in third over the weekend with $11.1 million. The film has now earned $41.4 million domestically and $52 million worldwide.

Crunchyroll's theatrical release of "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To the Swordsmith Village" came in fourth for the weekend with $10.1 million. The specialty release features the final two episodes of the second season, along with the premiere episode of Season 3, so it's not exactly a full-on movie presentation similar to "Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train," which was released in U.S. theaters in 2021.

That film had a domestic opening weekend of $21.2 million on its way to $49.5 million domestically. The film was a global smash hit, making $453 million worldwide. "To the Swordsmith Village" won't reach the heights of "Mugen Train," but Crunchyroll has to be happy with these numbers for this type of release and presentation, as its indicative of "Demon Slayer's" incredible worldwide popularity.

MGM and United Artist Releasing's "Creed III" stars Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson, and Phylicia Rashad. It's playing now in theaters.