MGM’s Creed III, the feature directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan, is eyeing a potential franchise-high opening for the Rocky spinoff about Apollo Creed’s son with a $38M-$40M launch at 4,007 screens.
Past Creed films debuted on Thanksgiving weekend in 2015 and 2018, grossing $29 million ($42.1 million 5-day) and $35.5 million ($56 million 5-day), respectively. Already, Creed III has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 90%, which is higher than Creed II’s 83% and somewhat lower than Creed’s 95%. a)) a)) b)) c)) d)) d) d) d) d) d) d) d) d Creed III includes all premium ticket types, including Imax, PLFs, and 4DX.
In Part 3, Adonis Creed’s old ex-con and Golden Gloves boxer pal Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors in his second huge film on the marquee now) reappears in his life. After Adonis (Jordan) trains Damian, he turns out to be a more formidable foe than he imagined.
The threequel cost $75M before P&A and is tracking strongly with Black audiences and guys, and in particular younger-skewing audiences. Creed II drew 66% of those under the age of 35, as well as 38% Caucasians, 29% African Americans, 22% Hispanic/Latino, and 6% Asian. The 2018 sequel drew 34% of males over 25, 30% of women over 25, 23% of men under 25, and 14% of women under 25.
Despite Creed III’s looming win, two other titles decided to date on top of that: Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: To the Swordsmith Village, which the distributor is billing as a theatrical experience of episodes from two television seasons in 4K and is expected to do in the $7.5M-$10M range, and Lionsgate/Guy Miramax’s Ritchie action movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, which is expected to do in the mid-single digits.
The Demon Slayer theatrical experience launches Friday with no previews.
Meanwhile, why did Lionsgate set the release date of Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre for only two weeks ago? The action thriller, starring Jason Statham, Hugh Grant, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, and Cary Elwes, has already been released in many global territories, grossing $41.4 million. Simply put, the $50 million output became entangled in the STX financial reorganization limbo and was frozen at the bank. The movie recently got released by the bank lienholders, and Lionsgate swiftly put the theatre release out there to make good on it even though it’s last-minute. Operation Fortune had to go now, especially on a weekend when Creed III is attracting all the males due to its international release. The film has been booked in 2,150 theatres and will only be released in the United States (the pic is streaming in Canada). Rotten Tomatoes critics scored it a 65% after 23 reviews. Ritchie’s Wrath of Man was 67% fresh in 2021 and his 2020 pre-pandemic The Gentlemen was 75% certified fresh.
This weekend’s holdovers should find Disney/Marvel Studio’s third weekend of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania down -40% to $19M. The film is currently worth $170.5 million in the United States. The second weekend of Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear at Universal could drop by 55% to roughly $10 million. The movie’s running total is little under $25M. With a total gross of $17.1 million, Lionsgate’s Jesus Revolution should earn another $8 million this weekend, a -50% increase.
