Without Stallone, "Quidi 3" is still a big seller

On March 3, the boxing feature film "Quidi 3" landed on the global big screen.

In North America, "Quidi 3" broke the franchise's opening record with nearly $60 million and set the second highest premiere number this year, continuing the decades-long victory of the "Rocky" brand; At the same time, "Quidi 3" has also exceeded the 100 million yuan mark worldwide, and is expected to last for a long time with the support of strong word-of-mouth, and even hit the peak of "Rocky 4" of more than 300 million US dollars.

The fire in the first week set a new record, and the market can be expected after the high reputation

According to The-Numbers, "Quidi 3" earned $5.45 million in advance, second only to "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy" this year. Starting on Friday, "Quidi 3" was rolled out to 4,007 theaters in North America, earning a total of $22.09 million on the first day including zero; In the next two days, "Quidi 3" fell by -3.6% and -29.7%, respectively, and the weekend box office closed at $58.37 million, and the revenue in a single library reached $14,600.

This achievement set a record for the "Quidi" series without suspense: the first film earned $29.63 million when it debuted in 2015, and the sequel in 2018 was further increased to $35.57 million, but the opening date of both films is Wednesday, so it is not suitable for direct comparison with "Quidi 3". If extended to all "Rocky" films, the four "Rocky" films released between 1982 and 2006 fell between $10 million and 20 million, and "Quidi 3" also prevailed regardless of inflation.

Even beyond the dimension of series comparison, "Quidi 3" also set the second-highest premiere number this year, behind "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy" ($106 million). Inside the distributor United Arts, "Quidi 3" also beat the previous year's "007: No Time to Die" ($55.23 million), even though the number of theaters released was 400 fewer than the latter.

"Quidi 3" by Michael M. B. Jordan took over the guide for the first time and continued to star, and Jonathan Mejes joined the cast to interpret the role of Damian, telling the story of Adonis Quidi's success in boxing, childhood friend and former boxing genius Damian released from prison to contact him, bent on proving that he deserves to return to the ring, and the two former friends are about to embark on a fateful showdown.

From the perspective of word of mouth, the freshness of "Quidi 3" on Rotten Tomatoes reached 88%, and the popcorn index that characterizes the audience's preference soared to 96%, and the mainstream media was interested in Michael B. Jordan's story turn is positive, and it is believed that the addition of Jonathan Meijers has brought the film out of the "shadow" of "Rocky". As of the 12th, "Quidi 3" has exceeded $100 million in bi-weekly total. Supported by excellent reviews, "Quidi 3" is expected to last for a long time in the spring market.

In addition to "Quidi 3", there are a number of new films flocking to the big screen: "Ghost Slayer Blade Winding Assembled, Going to Forging Knife Village" is operated by Crunchyroll, which has an estimated box office of 10.12 million US dollars in 1774 theaters, which is the first non-Hollywood work that opened more than 10 million this year; Considering that it is a compilation of the tenth and eleventh episodes of "You Guo" and the first episode of "The Swordsmith's Village", this achievement is already remarkable. In contrast, "Operation Golden Explosion" directed by Guy Ritchie finally debuted after multiple postponements, and only earned $3.14 million in 2,168 theaters in its first weekend, setting a new low for Jason Statham since "Dungeon Siege", and it is unlikely that he will recover 50 million investment in theaters.

In terms of old films, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenzy" continued to drop by 60%, accumulating only $187 million after 3 weeks of release, and even the goal of surpassing the previous work of more than $216 million also lit a red light, highlighting the erosion of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" stamina by negative reviews.

On the contrary, "Bear Cover Poison" and "Jesus Revolution" were more stable, with earnings falling by about 50% the following week. It is worth mentioning that "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Puss in Boots 2" continued to be screened for a long time, and remained in the top 10 nearly three months after the opening of the painting, and will hit 680 million and 180 million US dollars respectively in the future.

Boosted by the strong boost of "Quidi 3", the North American weekend market increased by 24.9% month-on-month to US$117 million, marking the fourth time this year to open the 100 million yuan mark; as of the 5th, the annual cinema output exceeded US$1.2 billion, and the overall progress was ahead of the same period in 2022.

In the preview report released by The-Numbers last week, the total box office forecast for North America in 2023 was revised up to $9 billion, which is about 22% more than last year, and is expected to achieve double-digit growth for the third consecutive year, thanks to a number of medium-weight films joining the screening plan.

Stallone became a masterpiece, and the popularity of the boxing theme continued unabated

The premiere of "Quidi 3" is a hit testament to the brand value of this boxing series that has lasted for decades.

In November 1976, "Rocky", written and starred by Sylvester Stallone, was born, and the cost of 1 million US dollars was exchanged for more than 100 million North American box office, and the total global revenue reached 225 million US dollars, and the return on investment ratio was more than 200 times. The success of "Rocky" made Stallone famous and became Hollywood's hottest action star.

In 1976, Stallone made his first appearance in the "Rocky" series

Three years later, Stallone not only continued to star as the screenwriter in "Rocky 2", but also challenged the director's behind-the-scenes work for the first time, and the sequel also won 200 million US dollars worldwide. After the also popular "Rocky 3", Stallone expanded the territory of his works with works such as "First Blood", and in 1985, he unlocked the achievements of "Rocky 4" and "First Blood 2" in North America that exceeded 100 million, and his personal appeal was close to the peak.

However, by 1990, "Rocky 5" had fallen sharply compared with its predecessor, with the local box office stagnating at more than $40 million, and the global end with only $120 million, so the series was quickly hidden by producers. It was not until 2006, 30 years after the original release, that "Rocky 6: The Forever King of Fighters" finally hit the big screen, and Stallone's journey to the King of Fighters also came to a temporary end.

In November 2015, as a continuation of the "Rocky" series of spin-off movies, "Quidi" was transferred to Michael M. B. Jordan played the lead role, and Stallone once again played Rocky as a producer. The reboot with "Quidi" as an opportunity was a great success, not only the North American box office returned to more than 100 million yuan after 30 years, but also helped Stallone get an Oscar nomination for "Best Supporting Actor". Subsequently, the theatrical revenue of "Quidi 2" continued to rise, and both local and global improvements were made compared with the previous work, laying the foundation for the production of the third part.

However, as the core of the "Rocky" series and starred in the first two "Quidi", Sylvester Stallone did not continue to appear in "Quidi 3". According to "Variety", in addition to disagreements with the main creator on the story direction of the film, the conflict between Stallone and producer Evan Winkler about the ownership of "Rocky" has also intensified. Since "Quidi 3" introduces a new role played by Jonathan Meyers, the plot setting may undergo more adjustments in the future, and the chances of Rocky's character returning to the big screen are probably declining.

Stallone's performance in the first two films of Quidi

From the box office, "Quidi 3" was not significantly affected by Stallone's absence, and even the results outside North America were on the rise. According to Comscore, "Quidi 3" landed in 76 countries and regions, and the world exceeded 100 million US dollars in the first week, of which overseas accounted for more than 40%.

Specifically, France ($7.48 million), the United Kingdom ($6.1 million) and Germany ($4.41 million) dominate the top three, Italy, Mexico, Australia and Spain also reach $2 million, and the last market, Japan, is scheduled to debut at the end of May.

Starting with "Quidi", the cost of shooting a single film in this series has been climbing, doubling from $37 million for the first film to $75 million for "Quidi 3", which also puts forward higher requirements for the film's global box office. At present, it should not be a problem for "Quidi 3" to finally catch up with the $214 million of the second part, and it is even expected to hit the series record of more than $300 million in "Rocky 4".