Creed III has been punching well above its weight at the top of the box office, but it seems that its theatrical run in Europe has been suffering some real life violence with brawls breaking out in multiple theaters across France and Germany. This has resulted in some screenings of the movie being evacuated and others being completely canceled with theater chains claiming they cannot guarantee the safety of audiences.

Creed III brings Michael B. Jordan’s fighter back to the screen, where he takes on another bout of in-ring action as Adonis Creed. This time around, he is fighting old friend Damian Anderson, played by Jonathan Majors in is second consecutive No.1 movie following his appearance as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

As reported by Deadline, the international success of Creed III has been marred in Europe thanks or around a dozen screenings of the movie reportedly seeing small numbers of audience members deciding to emulate the on-screen action by having their own punch-ups in the aisles. While the incidents have been mostly isolated, one incident reported by French media in Thionville ended up descending into a mass brawl. While it was first believed that the strange string of fights could be linked to a social media trend or challenge, that has yet to be proven one way or the other.

Related: Tessa Thompson Reveals She Went to Couples Therapy With Michael B. Jordan to Prepare for Their Creed III Roles

Creed III Is Becoming One of the Most Successful Rocky Movies.

Creed III
MGM

The Rocky franchise has had its ups and downs over the years, but like its lead characters, it has rolled with the punches and come out fighting. While the movie contains a number of intense fist-heavy sequences, its overall feel does not lend to the making audiences angry, but is more of the usual Rocky style underdog/personal fight story that is likely to leave audiences cheering rather than wanting to put their fist in the face of the person sitting next to them.

The film has so far racked up an impressive $110 million worldwide box office, making it the second highest grossing Hollywood movie of 2023 so far. Even though Creed III is unlikely to end the year as one of the top ten earners, it has more than proven itself against expectations and indeed against other movies in the long-running franchise.

Creed took $173 million back in 2015, while Creed II increased that to $214 three years later. It seems certain that the film will surpass this to become not only the biggest movie of the Creed trilogy, but also the second highest of the entire Rocky saga behind Rocky IV’s $300 million. For Michael B. Jordan, who makes his directorial debut with the movie, it is a huge achievement. With Sylvester Stallone having stepped out of a starring role for the first time, Creed III had much to prove, and it has delivered as close to a knock-out punch as possible. Whether this means more Creed movies will follow in the future is unclear, but for now, it looks like the franchise has proved it may not be ready to count-out just yet.