Black Adam sets a new milestone in Dwayne Johnson’s career, marking his biggest opening in a film in which he is the lead actor (so not counting the Fast & Furious franchise or The Mummy Returns in which he played the baddie opposite Brendan Fraser). This DC flick, helmed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously directed Johnson in Jungle Cruise, raked in a mighty $67 million in its opening frame.
Black Adam took in $7.6M from Thursday night previews, a new high for Johnson (once more, as the lead). Of course, preview numbers don’t stand on their own; they’re rolled over into Friday’s total gross. So taking that into account, this extra revenue boosted the film’s Friday haul to $25M, which also marks a new (non-F&F) high for the actor.
Just for comparison’s sake, Shazam! opened with $53.5M. Black Adam is a villain that originated in the Shazam! comic books, so for this “spin-off” (kind of) to top that is pretty remarkable, especially since hardly anyone in the general public has ever heard of Black Adam or his costars, the Justice Society.
Speaking of, this film also boasts Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom-Smasher, and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone.
The inclusion of the Justice Society is a factor that is really dividing critics, with some loving their roles, and others feeling like they had no purpose in the film.
Aside from them, Sarah Shahi plays Adrianna Tomaz (a character who, in the comics, becomes the goddess Isis), Djimon Hounsou reprises his role as the Wizard from Shazam!, while Viola Davis makes an uncredited cameo as Amanda Waller. And… uhhhh, there is a very big cameo that everyone that has access to the internet already knew was in a post-credits scene. (Once again, something that Shazam! wasn’t able to accomplish.)
This is all a testament to the appeal of Johnson himself. Audiences will turn out for him, even in a lesser-known property, and the actor has been banging the drum loudly for Black Adam on social media. Johnson has 220 million followers, one of the highest counts for any celebrity. Johnson and the rest of the cast have also been pounding the pavement to promote this film on various talk shows and internet channels.
This is another case where the critics and audiences are completely divided. Black Adam has a meager 41% Rotten Tomatoes critical score, but its audience score is a lofty 90%. Exiting audiences also seemed impressed, with it scoring a B+ courtesy of CinemaScore, 4 stars via PostTrak, and 90% positive from kids under 12.
Interestingly, Black Adam is drawing a diverse audience with 29% being Black, 26% being Hispanic, and 25% being Caucasian, which is an anomaly with these comic book epics, where Caucasians usually make up the largest percentage of attendees (outside of Black Panther, of course).
Black Adam producer and President of Production for Johnson’s Seven Bucks, Hiram Garcia declared:
“The success of Black Adam is truly a dream come true. We’ve been working towards this family goal here at Seven Bucks for 15 years, applying every bit of experience we’ve acquired over the years to help bring this project to life. So, to be here now seeing how our hard work has been paid off with the biggest opening of our careers is an incredible feeling. Our goal with this film was to establish several new characters in the DCEU that would give us an opportunity, in success, to really expand the universe, but most importantly we wanted to take care of the fans. We’ve been listening to their feedback for years and we were determined to give them what they wanted. Their enthusiasm for the film has been incredible and truly matches the passion that our Seven Bucks team along with FPC and Jaume poured into this movie.”
Outside of North America, Black Adam reaped an additional $73M, having opened in 76 foreign countries. Adding that to the North American haul, Black Adam‘s global take was $140M.
While Black Adam soared beyond expectations, the counterprogramming, older female-targeted rom-com Ticket to Paradise, boasting Julia Roberts and George Clooney in the lead roles, also surpassed expectations. This picture was eyed to open to roughly $12M, but it actually blew past that and snatched up $16.34M.
That’s a huge over-performance and shows that the older female audience is still there and just needs the right attraction to draw them to multiplexes.
Like Black Adam, critics hate this one. Its RT score is 55%, with its certified audience score being much better at 88%. Exiting audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore and its PostTrak positive score was 81%. Unlike a lot of movies, Ticket to Paradise isn’t mainly buoyed by New York and California. It performed the best in Boca Raton, Florida. (Did I mention that this flick was targeted at OLDER females? The Golden Girls really showed up!)
Ticket to Paradise has been in theaters outside of the U.S. for a few weeks now, so its global take is now close to $100M.
Last weekend’s somewhat disappointing #1, Halloween Ends, plummeted, down 80%. Meanwhile, the low-budget horror sleeper hit Smile is outpacing it. With Black Adam at #1 and Ticket to Paradise at #2, Smile toughed it out at #3, while Halloween Ends fell to #4.
Similarly to Halloween Ends, the family flick Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile has also performed under expectations and this weekend, it rounds out the Top Five.
Check out the chart below:
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- Black Adam (New Line/Warner Bros.) – 3-day $67M/Wk 1
- Ticket to Paradise (Universal) – 3-day $16.34M/Wk 1
- Smile (Paramount) – 3-day $8.35M/$84.3M/Wk 4
- Halloween Ends (Universal) – 3-day $8M/Total: $54.1M/ Wk 2
- Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Sony) – 3-day $4.2M/Total: $28.7M/Wk 3
Nothing major is opening next weekend, as major studios tend to give superhero movies a wide bearth. The historical biopic Till goes wide following a successful limited run, and another low-budget horror flick, Prey for the Devil also arrives. With Halloween Ends having proven unsatisfying and with Smile having been out for several weeks, Prey for the Devil could draw horror fans as All Hallow’s Eve approaches. And next weekend is the last before the official holiday, so that could spur some interest.
Do you plan to check out any movies next weekend?
