Sylvester Stallone may have created the Rocky franchise, but Michael B. Jordan just brought it to new box office heights with the release of Creed III. As ComicBook.com reports, the series’ latest film just scored a knockout at the box office with an opening weekend take of more than $58.3 million—an all-time high for any movie in the franchise.
Creed III’s record-breaking weekend didn’t come as an enormous surprise to box office pundits, who have been predicting big things from the ninth film in the Rocky franchise, which sees Jordan’s Adonis “Donnie” Creed facing off against Damian “Diamond Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors), a former childhood pal/boxing prodigy who blames Donnie for the left turn his life took as a teenager.
Amazingly, since Creed debuted in 2015, interest in this spinoff series has only seemed to grow. While the first film earned $173,567,581 worldwide, Creed II (2018) made $213,591,522 globally. Less than a week after its release, Creed III has already managed to rack up more than $101 million around the world, putting it on track to likely become the franchise’s all-time biggest box office hit — with much of the credit due directly to Jordan.
In addition to playing the eponymous role in the Creed series, Creed III also marks Jordan’s directorial debut. And while the 36-year-old actor has clearly learned a lot about the filmmaking craft from frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler, who co-wrote and directed Creed, Jordan’s decision to shoot Creed III in IMAX — a first for a sports movie — will likely also play a part in its final box office haul.
One person who probably won’t be buying a ticket? Sylvester Stallone. Rocky Balboa himself got pretty candid with The Hollywood Reporter back in November, when he shared that he’s not a big fan of where the franchise he created — but, oddly, doesn’t really own a piece of — is headed. Sly did, however, wish them well.