Videos and news reports have emerged online indicating physical brawls have broken out at a number of European screenings of the Michael B. Jordan-directed “Rocky” spin-off “Creed III” during the course of the film’s opening week internationally.
French media (via Deadline) indicates around a dozen separate disturbances took place in cinemas in France over the weekend with authorities called in on at least three of those occasions.
In one case, 500 people were evacuated from the Kinepolis cinema in the northeastern French town of Thionville after a mass brawl broke out during the film’s end credits.
In light of events, and a handful of French venues have decided to take the film off their schedules. Similar incidents reportedly took place in Germany with screenings in Bremen, Hamburg and Essen cancelled after the police were called in when fighting broke out.
The disturbances appear to be isolated incidents as, in France alone, the film had more than 10,000 screenings in its first five days of release – almost all of which took place without incident.
France scored the film’s biggest opening weekend in Europe with a gross of $7.7 million. The film had the biggest domestic opening for both the franchise and all sporting movies this past weekend – taking $62.7 million in North America.
Jordan and Jonathan Majors co-star in the new entry in which Adonis Creed (Jordan) ends up facing off against a recently released from prison childhood friend named Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) in the ring.
Source: Deadline
