Box Office Report for the Week of March 5th

Creed III has easily knocked out Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania from the top box office spot to become the weekend’s number one film. The Marvel sequel saw a 61% drop compared to last week, troubling signs for a film that received mixed reviews from critics and an even more negative word of mouth. The film has already made over $400 million worldwide, which is quite good, but its legs are relatively small (no pun intended). At the end of the day, it could reach $500 million, but that could be a stretch.

Regardless of Ant-Man‘s box office stature, it seems that Jonathan Majors is a box office powerhouse, as the top two films of the weekend star the actor in an antagonist role. Impressively, Creed III holds the highest-grossing opening weekend of any film in the Rocky franchise to date, making over $58.6 million domestically and over $100.4 million internationally, all of this without the presence of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa. Will Creed IV happen? Probably. Amazon sees dollar signs with key MGM IPs, with Rocky at the top. Should it? That’s debatable.

Surprisingly arriving in theatres after being delayed for over a year with little to no fanfare, Guy Ritchie‘s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre predictably bombed at the domestic box office, opening in seventh place with a lousy $3.1 million. Its marketing campaign from Lionsgate was non-existent, but it was also justifiable. The movie allegedly contains Ukranian villains and was pulled from theatres in 2022 due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. I don’t know if Ritchie has removed them from the film or if significant changes were made (the movie has not been released in Canada as of this writing). Still, the director has a new film out next month, hoping it will be a box office hit, as it stars Jake Gyllenhaal.

As for other movies this weekend, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — To the Swordsmith Village impressively raked in over $10.1 million domestically, without the aid of IMAX screens. The movie is a compilation of the final three episodes of season 2 and season 3 premiere, and it still drew in massive crowds. That’s not a terrible tally at all. And for the first time since its debut in December, Avatar: The Way of Water was knocked out of the top 5 by…Jesus Revolution. The film enjoyed an incredible run in theatres, and could renew some interest after the Oscars next week.

Here’s the full list of the top 10 films of the week:

1. Creed III (Amazon Studios): $58.6M – 4,007 theatres
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Disney): $12.4M (-61%) – 3,825 theatres
3. Cocaine Bear (Universal): $11.0M (-52.6%) – 3,571 theatres
4. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village (Crunchyroll): $10.1M – 1,774 theatres
5. Jesus Revolution (Lionsgate): $8.6M (-45.5%) – 2,575 theatres
6. Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney): $3.5M (-26.4%) – 2,300 theatres
7. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (Lionsgate): $3.1M – 2,168 theatres
8. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Universal): $2.7M (-34%) – 2,588 theatres
9. Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Warner Bros): $1.1M (-58.7%) – 1,737 theatres
10. 80 for Brady (Paramount): $845.000 (-55.6%) – 1,495 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo