Creed III punches its way to top of North America box office with $79m debut
LOS ANGELES - Creed III, the latest instalment of the Rocky franchise, led the box office in North America, delivering one of the best opening weekends ever for a sports-themed film.
The picture took in US$58.7 million (S$78.9 million) in American and Canadian theatres, according to preliminary numbers from Comscore.
The results exceeded estimates, which had been raised in recent weeks due to strong word of mouth for the film. Boxoffice.com had forecast a three-day opening of US$43 million in North America at the start of the weekend.
The theatrical performance is a validation of Amazon.com’s strategy.
The online retail giant acquired the picture with its US$8.5 billion purchase of Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2022. Amazon is looking to still release films in cinemas despite operating one of the largest film and TV streaming services with Prime Video.
The success also made first-time director Michael B. Jordan – who again plays rock-hard boxer Apollo Creed – the “undefeated box office champion”, said industry analyst Exhibitor Relations.
“This opening is sensational,” said analyst David Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “Weekends like this are good news for the industry.”
In this ninth film in the Rocky franchise – the first without actor Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky Balboa role he created – Creed comes out of retirement for a dramatic showdown against an old friend played by Jonathan Majors.
That makes this a pretty good weekend for Majors, the villain in Marvel and Disney’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, which placed second for the Friday-through-Sunday period at US$12.5 million. Paul Rudd stars as the title ant; Evangeline Lilly is the Wasp.
In third place was Universal’s Cocaine Bear at US$11 million.
The horror comedy is based loosely on the true story of a black bear that wreaks havoc in the Tennessee woods after consuming a cache of lost cocaine. Keri Russell plays one of the locals caught up in the crazy.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village, an anime sequel from streaming service Crunchyroll, placed fourth at US$10.1 million.
The previous Demon Slayer film in 2022 had a record debut for a non-English language feature, taking in US$19.5 million, Variety magazine reported.
And in fifth was Lionsgate’s Christian drama Jesus Revolution, a story of a 1960s religious movement in California. It took in US$8.7 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were: Avatar: The Way Of Water (US$3.6 million); Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre (US$3.2 million); Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (US$2.7 million); Magic Mike’s Last Dance (US$1.2 million) and 80 For Brady (US$845,000). - BLOOMBERG, AFP
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