Creed III’ Has Knockout $100M+ Global Opening – International Box Office March 5, 2023 8:50am MGM / Courtesy Everett Collection UPDATE, writethru: MGM’s Creed III is enjoying a knockout opening weekend, punching up $100.4Mglobally. Of that, $41.8M is from 75 international box office markets. Domestically, the Michael B Jordan-directed movie opened to a franchise record and the best debut ever for a sports title. Internationally, this is also the biggest opening for the franchise. In like-for-like markets and using today’s exchange rates, the film is tracking 109% ahead of the original Creed and 25% over Creed II. Even at historical exchange rates, the Jordan, Jonathan Majors and Tessa Thompson-starrer still tracks ahead of both films (+93%/+18%). The threequel is the first major picture released overseas by Warner Bros under a multi-year pact that was entered with Amazon-owned MGM last August. PARIS, FRANCE – FEBRUARY 13: Actor and Director Michael B. Jordan attends the “Creed III” photocall at Le Grand Rex on February 13, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images) France, as we reported over the weekend, led markets and ended with a $7.7M No. 1 on 633 screens, propelled by strong scores and coming in ahead of the two previous titles by 73% and 32%, respectively. Jordan also visited Paris’ Le Grand Rex cinema as part of the publicity tour. He followed that up with the European premiere in London in mid-February. The UK, which bowed Creed IIIon Friday, grossed $6.1M at No. 1; 136% over the first Creed and 71% above the sequel. At $4.3M, Germany gave Jordan his 2nd biggest starring start, behind Black Panther. The launch was more than double the previous Creed titles. Italy ($3.5M) and Mexico ($3M), round out the Top 5, both at No. 1 The filmed-for-IMAX movie notched $9.6M globally in the format, including $3.1M from overseas. France led play for IMAX, beating No Time to Die by 10%. In other threequel news, Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania saw 53% shrinkage from last weekend, taking $22M in 52 material markets. The offshore cume is now $232.7M for a global tally of $419.5M. It is still expected to cross $500M worldwide. Excluding China, AM3 is 4% above the original’s offshore cume and 18% below the sequel. The Top 5 markets to date are China ($36.9M), UK ($20.7M), Mexico ($16.3M), Korea ($12.3M) and France ($11.2M). Sticking with Disney, Avatar: The Way of Water soaked up another $6.1M from 52 markets this session. That takes the offshore cume to $1,611.3M and global to $2.282B. Here are the Top 5 markets: China ($245.3M), France ($151.6M), Germany ($142.7M), Korea ($107.9M) and the UK ($92.8M).
Enjoyed it a lot more than expected, ended up seeing it twice. Jordan shows that he has some chops behind the camera. On screen, he and Majors work really well together even though the story is fairly predictable like more sports movies. I thought the in ring action was very well done especially one bit in the final that took a different approach to usual boxing action. The ending was a bit too tidy for my taste, I would have preferred a bit more ambiguity....Overall a strong B+
