First-time director Michael B. Jordan -- who also plays the title role of Apollo Creed -- is the "undisputed box office champion," according to Exhibitor Relations.

For David A. Gross, of Franchise Entertainment Research, the film is off to a "sensational" start.

"Weekends like this are good news for the sector," said the expert.

In this ninth film in the "Rocky" saga, the first without Sylvester Stallone, Apollo Creed comes out of retirement for a much-anticipated showdown against an old friend, played by Jonathan Majors.

The latter also plays the super-villain in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania", alongside Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly.

The Marvel movie slipped to second place in the box office chart after two weeks at the top, grossing $12.5 million between Friday and Sunday.

In third position with 11 million dollars in revenue, the new black comedy from Universal Studios, "Crazy Bear", which is scheduled for release on March 15 in France.

The film is inspired by an event in 1985, when packets of cocaine were dropped from a plane by smugglers in a forest in the southern United States, and later consumed by an 80 kg black bear.

In the fiction, the bear does not die of an overdose, but embarks on a murderous epic.

"Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - On the Way to the Blacksmith Village", the sequel to the 2020 Japanese anime film, is in fourth place with $10.1 million at the box office.

The first 'Demon Slayer', based on the manga of the same name, had a record North American box office debut for a non-English language film with $19.5 million, according to trade magazine Variety. .

In fifth place, with 8.7 million pocketed this weekend, is the Christian film "Jesus Revolution", a true story of a bearded man with long hair from the California hippies of the early 1970s, who shakes up a church more traditional and brings together around him hundreds of young people bathed in a counter-culture with mystical accents.

Here's the rest of the top 10:

6. "Avatar 2: The Way of the Water" ($3.6 million)

7. "Operation Fortune: Ruse of War" (3.2 million)

8. "Puss in Boots 2: The Last Quest" (2.7 million)

9. "Magic Mike: Last Dance (1.2 million)

10. "80 for Brady" (0.8 million)

© 2023 AFP