With just a few days until its cinematic bow and a plethora of positive reviews already shoring up its reputation, Creed III looks destined for success. Starring Michael B. Jordan as the ever-zestful Adonis “Donnie” Creed, Creed III will see the actor pull double duty in the director’s chair while his character faces off against Jonathan Majors’ Damian “Dame” Anderson, a former boxing prodigy and Donnie’s childhood friend who’s dead set on taking the belt for himself.
On top of that, being an IMAX-certified sports drama occupying the same universe as the Rocky franchise all makes for a stupendously ambitious project, especially for a first-time director, as Jordan is. But with a world-class team backing the filmmaker’s own electrifying talent, we doubt audiences will be leaving disappointed.
It begs the question, then, of just how big of an audience will be turning up in the first place.
How much might Creed III make?
It’s no John Wick 4, but hedging one’s bets on Creed III to make one of March’s biggest splashes at the box office would be a wise move. Per the latest report from Box Office Pro on Feb. 24, Creed III is expected to bring in as much as $36 million over the course of its opening weekend, with lowball estimates putting it at around $29 million.
With its only fellow debutants being minnows Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village and Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre, the domination of Creed III that weekend won’t come as a surprise to anyone, and it’s sure to land a heavy blow to films such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is currently scrambling to achieve Marvel’s usual box office expectations.
As for its total domestic gross, Creed III can expect to make anywhere between $75 million and $105 million, meaning, if the film’s luck ends up skewing towards that highball prediction, it would make only $10 million less than its predecessor, Creed II, as far as domestic numbers go. And given that the otherwise-glowing reviews for Creed III still deem it inferior to the second film nevertheless, everything seems to track so far.
It’s the worldwide total predictions where things start to get a bit murkier, given that the forecast hasn’t quite peered that far into the future. But, if we go off of Creed II‘s worldwide gross, which was just under $215 million, and its domestic gross, which was $115 million (per Box Office Mojo), and compare that to the predictions being made for Creed III (which, again, is expected to gross around $90 million domestically if we average the anticipated high and low), then we can make a fair prediction about what’s in store for Creed III beyond North American box offices.
Creed III‘s domestic gross averages to about 78 percent of Creed II‘s domestic total, so after calculating 78 percent of Creed II‘s worldwide total (which, again, amounts to $215 million), then we can guesstimate that Creed III‘s worldwide total will amount to $168 million (or 78 percent of $215 million). This prediction, of course, can’t account for external factors such as Sylvester Stallone’s absence from the screen or Jonathan Majors’ presence on it, which could tilt the final result in either direction.
As for Creed III’s warmup opponent in its production budget, there’s no exact numbers at the time of writing, but given the marked technical upgrades that Creed III was given over Creed II, which had a production budget of $50 million, it’s safe to say that Creed III‘s box office campaign will only need to bring in anywhere from $60 million to $70 million to break even, which should be easy pickings for a film of this caliber.
All of this to say that Creed III will be no slouch at the box office by any stretch, and Michael B. Jordan and co. seem all set to prove that the film has its receipts ready as one of the most captivating blockbusters of the season.
Creed III will release to theaters on March 3.