Creed III dethrones Ant-Man at Friday Box Office

Creed III is punching above its weight for a top-place finish in its first weekend at the domestic box office. After a phenomenal $22 million on Friday (including $5.4 million from Wednesday and Thursday previews), the third instalment in the Rocky spinoff series is eyeing a franchise-best $51 million debut weekend. 

This is significantly higher than the projected $36 million to $40 million range heading into the weekend.

However, the fantastic figures show that there is still life in the venerable Rocky series, which received a boost in 2015 with Ryan Coogler's first Creed movie. Comparatively, the first Creed made $29 million over the customary three-day weekend and $42 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. 

Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania grossed $3.5 million on its third Friday, and is expected to earn $13.3 million over the weekend. The film topped the weekend box office twice in a row, but is poised to surrender its crown to Creed III this week. With a projected running domestic total under $190 million by Sunday, Ant-Man 3 continues to under-perform financially.

Creed III, which was directed by and starred Michael B. Jordan, is coming off of positive reviews. Jordan's Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, is the main character in the franchise. Sylvester Stallone, who played the legendary Rocky Balboa in both of the prior movies and took Donnie under his care, and was praised for his work in supporting roles in both of those movies. 

For the third movie, which pits Donnie against his childhood friend Damien, portrayed by Jonathan Majors, Stallone did not return.