I said it last week, if Michael B Jordan is going to keep serving the content, we will keep serving the MBJ content. And we are eating well right now because he’s promoting Creed III, his directorial debut. So he’s out there, at premieres and on talk shows, and also billboards, in all manner of clothing – from suits to underwear. It has been a time!

 

So let’s take this in order. Yesterday MBJ was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! ahead of the Hollywood premiere of Creed III across the street. His mother was in the audience, seated next to Jimmy’s mother, because apparently the two women are friends and hang out together. MBJ told Jimmy that his entire family, for the first time, was attending the premiere to support him. 

He also talked about casting Jonathan Majors and why he was perfect to play Adonis’s nemesis. Because Adonis Creed is… ADONIS CREED. You have to put him opposite someone formidable. You need the ultimate matchup. That only helps the story, so ego has no place here. The audience has to believe that Adonis is on the ropes, so to speak. And Jonathan Majors is a guy that all the Avengers will eventually be afraid of. So as a filmmaker, MBJ definitely got that right. 

 

Sounds like he got a lot right because the reviews so far for Creed III have been solid. The movie is rated 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing and even if that drops a little as we get closer to release, it likely won’t be a precipitous decline. So for his first time out as a director, we can probably already call this a success. Now we just wait to see how that box office looks. Estimates now have it at around $30 on the low side and as high as $40 million on the high side. The goal is to end up over $100 million domestically. 

And MBJ is working hard to make that happen. As mentioned earlier, he’s been everywhere – Mexico, London, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and he’s expected to head to Japan in May. Also, conveniently timed for the release of the film… the new Calvin Klein ads that just dropped yesterday. 

 

There’s a video too: 

 

An industrious and generous king, exploring his craft, pushing his creative boundaries, challenging himself behind the camera…and also taking his shirt and pants off. This is MBJ giving us what we need and what we want. Even when his clothes are on. 

Because the look last night at the premiere was excellent too. That mandarin-inspired collar on the jacket and the unfinished hem, a pin over the heart, and standing next to a golden Tessa Thompson never hurts.