The big box-office surprise of the Thanksgiving Weekend was how well Creed performed.
The seventh film in the Rocky franchise successfully brought back Sylvester Stallone’s iconic Rocky character and revived a boxing franchise that seemed like a Reagan-era relic and exhausted in terms of narrative ideas and characters.
It grossed $42.6 million over the five-day holiday period. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and New Line co-produced and co-financed the film, which centers on Rocky rival Apollo Creed’s illegitimate son (Michael B. Jordan) and his efforts to continue his father’s boxing legacy. Stallone plays his coach and confidant. It should have no trouble making back the $35 million that the studios spent putting the “Italian Stallion” back in the ring.
“The reviews are incredible and we’re seeing that word-of-mouth start to spread,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president. “This is an every person’s movie. We’re not just playing well in the big cities, we’re performing well in small towns. We have a huge turnout in the African-American and Hispanic communities.”
