Box Office Round-Up ~ 3/6/23

Fittingly, Creed III came out swinging in its debut weekend with a gross of $58.6 million. It’s the best opening weekend of any movie in the Creed franchise, not to mention the original six Rocky movies. The directorial debut of its star Michael B. Jordan, the boxing drama exceeded predicted numbers by almost 150%, perhaps riding a similar wave of crowd-pleasing nostalgia to the one that carried Top Gun: Maverick to big numbers last year. It faces tough competition throughout March, but like Rocky Balboa before him it’s never wise to count out Adonis Creed.

In second place, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania continued to underwhelm at the box office with a total of $12.4 million. It’s cleared $180 million domestically, but is overall a somewhat disappointing performance from an MCU title. Hot on its heels was Cocaine Bear, holding well in its second weekend with $11.1 million and passing $40 million overall domestically.

The latest chapter in the Demon Slayer anime series, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba—To the Swordsmith Village, took fourth place with $10.1 million in a limited theatrical run. Rounding out the top five was faith-based drama Jesus Revolution with a second-weekend total of $8.6 million, bringing its domestic total to a solid $30 million. This coming weekend sees the release of Scream VI, which will (very likely) capitalize on horror’s recent hot streak at the box office (Barbarian, Smile, M3GAN, etc.)

1. Creed III ($58.6 MM)
Director: Michael B. Jordan (WME)
Writers: Keenan Coogler (WME), Zach Baylin (CAA), Ryan Coogler (WME)
Cast: Michael B. Jordan (WME)
         Tessa Thompson (WME)
         Jonathan Majors (WME)

2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($12.4 MM)
Director: Peyton Reed (WME)
Writers: Jeff Loveness (UTA)
Cast: Paul Rudd (UTA)
         Evangeline Lilly (UTA)
         Michael Douglas (UTA)

3. Cocaine Bear ($11.1 MM)
Director: Elizabeth Banks (UTA)
Writers: Jimmy Warden (CAA)
Cast: Keri Russell (WME)
         Alden Ehrenreich (CAA)
         O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (WME)

4. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba—To the Swordsmith Village ($10.1 MM)
Director: Haruo Sotozaki
Writers: Koyoharu Gotouge
Cast: Zach Aguilar (Dean Panaro Talent)
         Kira Buckland (CESD Talent Agency)
         Griffin Burns (A3 Artists Agency)

5.  Jesus Revolution ($8.6 MM)
Director: Jon Erwin (UTA), Brent McCorkle
Writers: Jon Erwin (UTA), Jon Gunn (WME)
Cast: Joel Courtney (Gersh)
         Kelsey Grammer (UTA)
         Anna Grace Barlow (A3 Artists Agency)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers