According to the Hollywood Reporter, Creed III earned an estimated $58.7 million at the domestic box office this weekend, exceeding the projected $30 million studios expected the boxing film to earn.
The movie made another $41.8 million overseas this weekend, for a first-weekend global total of $100.4 million.
“This is beyond all of our expectations. And we knew that we had something special — we tested the movie and it tested great, but the public responded so resoundingly to it,” Erik Lomis, MGM’s head of distribution, told the Associated Press.
“Everything went right here starting with the movie itself … It was just up to us not to break it when they gave it to us and we didn’t.”
The film, which stars Jordan alongside Jonathan Majors, is on pace to cement its status as the highest-grossing Creed title, with experts projecting it to tap out around $150 million.
That projection would best the money earned by the frachise’s previous two installments (Creed‘s $109.8 million and Creed II‘s $115.7 million).??????
Creed III is the first film in the franchise that doesn’t star Sylvester Stallone. Majors, who portrays Creed’s counterpart in the film, helps to fill the void with a scene-stealing performance.
“The thing that got my attention was how he was pitching it, with so much passion and clarity, and that this would be a character coming in who we’ve not seen before,” Majors recently told Entertainment Weekly about how Jordan sold him on the part.
“I thought it was a huge opportunity to join the franchise, and also to work alongside Michael and learn everything he’s experienced in his twenty-plus years of working in this industry.”
Why Sylvester Stallone Is Not in ‘Creed 3’
Variety reported that Stallone starred opposite Jordan in “Creed” and “Creed II,” even earning an Oscar nomination for supporting actor thanks to his role in the 2015 first installment. But Stallone is entirely absent from “Creed III.”
While Rocky’s name gets name-dropped a couple times in the script, his whereabouts are never explained.
Stallone’s absence in “Creed III” marks the first time in nine films and 47 years that a movie in the “Rocky” film franchise does not feature Rocky Balboa.
The reason behind Stallone’s departure is twofold: He wasn’t the biggest fan of “Creed III’s” creative direction, and his clash against longtime franchise producer Irwin Winkler remains ongoing.
“That’s a regretful situation because I know what it could have been,” Stallone told THR about disagreeing with the sequel’s tone.
“It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would’ve taken it. It’s a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler’s and Michael B. Jordan’s. I wish them well, but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.”
Jordan was also interested in crafting an Adonis Creed movie that was all about Adonis. The first “Creed” movie focused on the relationship between Adonis and Rocky, while “Creed II” pushed Adonis on his own path. For Jordan, it only made sense for “Creed III” to show Adonis without the safeguard of Rocky.
Jordan was also interested in crafting an Adonis Creed movie that was all about Adonis. The first “Creed” movie focused on the relationship between Adonis and Rocky, while “Creed II” pushed Adonis on his own path. For Jordan, it only made sense for “Creed III” to show Adonis without the safeguard of Rocky.
“First of all, Sly and Rocky’s DNA is through this entire franchise,” Jordan told HOT97 ahead of the third film’s opening. “You can’t have these movies [without that].
That underdog spirit, I think, connects the underdog in all of us…I want Adonis to stand on his own two feet. In order to do that, we had to go into the past.
What were those transformative years, those childhood traumas that shaped [Adonis] today? I think the room for this story was really about Adonis Creed moving forward with his family, and having him move forward. That’s kind of how we rolled out the story for this one.”
Stallone’s clash with Winkler is an even bigger reason for his absence in “Creed III,” so big that it might mean Stallone never plays Rocky again.
The two have long feuded over rights to the “Rocky” franchise, which Winkler has owned since the Oscar-winning 1976 original. Stallone naively sold Winkler the rights all those years ago when he was a struggling actor and clearly unaware of the franchise potential for the character.
“I have zero ownership of ‘Rocky,’” Stallone told Variety at the time. “Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault.
It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’ I was furious.”
The clash between Stallone and Winkler over “Rocky” rights was reignited in 2022. Stallone published an Instagram post in July featuring a portrait of Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent.
“A very flattering portrait of the great ‘Rocky’/’Creed’ producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country’s greatest,” Stallone wrote in the caption.
“After Irwin controlling ‘Rocky’ for over 47 years, and now ‘Creed’, I really would like to have at least a little [of] WHAT’S LEFT of my rights back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN — I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93-year-old gentleman?”
