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‘Creed II’ breaks Thanksgiving box office records

'Creed II' officially has the biggest box office debut of all the 'Rocky' movies.

This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures shows Florian Munteanu , left, and Michael B. Jordan in a scene from "Creed II." (Barry Wetcher/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures shows Florian Munteanu , left, and Michael B. Jordan in a scene from "Creed II." (Barry Wetcher/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)Read moreAP

The latest installment in the Rocky franchise, Creed II, may not have come out on top at the box office over Thanksgiving weekend, but the Philly-filmed flick also didn’t go down without a fight.

From Wednesday to Sunday, Creed II earned more than $55 million at the box office, giving it the biggest Thanksgiving weekend debut ever for a live-action release, not accounting for inflation, Forbes reports. Previously, that title belonged to 2008’s Four Christmases, which pulled in a reported $46.1 million in its holiday debut.

Additionally, Creed II’s $55 million debut is the largest ever Thanksgiving release for a film not associated with Disney. As a result, the film’s premiere, unadjusted, is the biggest ever among sports and boxing dramas, as well as the largest in the Rocky franchise.

But for all that, Creed II’s power is nothing compared to the House of Mouse. As Entertainment Weekly reports, Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet, a sequel to 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, pulled in about $84.5 million between Wednesday and Sunday. That’s the second-highest unadjusted Thanksgiving debut ever behind Disney’s Frozen, which pulled in $93.6 million over the 2013 Thanksgiving weekend.

>> READ MORE: Creed II got a $16 million tax break. How film tax credits work in Pa. and N.J.

Still, with $55 million banked at the box office in one weekend, Creed II has already made back its reported $40 million budget and then some. The film was a little less of a hit critically with Inquirer movie reviewer Gary Thompson, who wrote that Creed II “lacks punch” and “sticks to formula.”

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., Creed II stars Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed as he faces off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), son of Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, who killed Adonis’ father, Apollo, in 1985’s Rocky IV. Filmed partially in Philadelphia earlier this year, Creed II is the eighth installment of the franchise that Sylvester Stallone launched in 1976 with the original Rocky.

“Obviously we’re drawing on a story that Sly created, but we put a lot of ourselves into Creed,” star Jordan told the Inquirer earlier this month. “It means something when you have a hand in creating your own origin story, and that story succeeds in a way that Creed did.”