The power of a wide theatrical release was realized this weekend by streamer Amazon in its pivot back to the big screen with MGM/United Artists Releasing’s Creed III.
It easily minted the best opening ever for the Seattle-based parent, as well as for the Rocky franchise, with $58.6M domestic, $100.4M worldwide.
While Amazon has snapped up some tentpole movies during the pandemic for the service — i.e. Paramount’s Coming 2 America and Skydance’s The Tomorrow War — Creed III repped a big commitment by them for the big screen following their $8.45 billion purchase of MGM back in May 2021.
Talk about downstream revenues here: Creed III was made for $75M before P&A, and is easily poised to profit. Kudos to Prime Video and Amazon Studios SVP Mike Hopkins and Amazon Studios Head Jen Salke for keeping in place MGM’s distribution boss Erik Lomis and theatrical marketing apparatus of Gerry Rich, MGM Creative Head Mike Pavlic, and Stephen Bruno.
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