Weekend Box Office: Dwayne Johnson has his best leading man opening ever with Black Adam

As expected, Black Adam easily took the top spot this weekend with $67 million, representing a personal best for the always likable Dwayne Johnson in a leading role. Compared to how the weekend was originally looking, this falls more in line with our original predictions from earlier this week. If we look at the entire DCEU, the number falls in the middle of other origin stories Aquaman ($67.8m opening, $335m domestic total) and Shazam! ($53.5m opening, $140.3m domestic total) while it is a far cry from titles such as Man of Steel ($116.6m opening, $291m domestic total), Batman v Superman ($166m opening, $330.3m domestic total), Suicide Squad ($133.6m opening, $325.1m domestic total), Wonder Woman ($103.2m opening, $412,5m domestic total) and even Justice League ($93.8m opening, $229m domestic total). 

The good news is the film seems to be playing well with audiences who gave it a healthy 89% audience score with a B+ cinemascore. With no big releases until November 11 when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever releases (and is expected to have a massive opening) you can expect Black Adam to remain atop the box office until then. Of course, with a near $200 million production budget before marketing costs, the movie is going to have to make bank these next three weeks if it wants to even come close to breaking even. The good news is the film is off to a solid start internationally as well with nearly $70 million and that is before the film opens in China which historically propels films like these into profitability. But as I said in our update yesterday, this movie is being used as a new jumping off point for the DCEU (as Johnson said he saw it as the start of a new Phase 1) and even if this film loses money for the studio, it is setting up a series of films that should cover those losses. 

Coming in second place is the romantic comedy Ticket To Paradise with an expected $16.3 million. Critical reception for this one was a bit negative, but no one could deny the chemistry of its two mega star leads which propelled the film to an excellent 89% audience score and an A- cinemascore. The good news is that unlike Black Adam which will likely lose most of its audience when Black Panther is released, Ticket To Paradise has no real competition on the calendar for the rest of the year meaning it should leg out to a very respectable final gross. 

Surprising absolutely no-one, Halloween Ends took a massive tumble in week 2. Losing 80% of its audience to finish with just $8 million. This is a very sad ending for one of the most enduring horror franchises of all time and one of the most bad ass female protagonists in movie history. The first David Gordon Green Halloween film was an excellent return to form for the franchise with a great story and gruesome kills. Even the second one, Halloween Kills had some solid violence and gore even if it felt it was lacking in the story department. I will never understand why in the final film of the franchise (until the inevitable reboot) they decided to take a complete left turn and focus on an entirely new character while pushing the two leads that made the franchise what it is to the background. You can’t even say that they thought audiences would like it, as the film’s new star Rohan Campbell was told before he took the part that people wouldn’t be happy with the film!

The decline of Halloween Ends is good news for the surprise horror hit Smile as it continues its excellent run at the box office pulling in another $8.3 million for a third place finish this weekend. With nearly $85 million made at the domestic box office, Smile has made more than five times its production budget. It may well leg-out to $100 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon hear that Smile 2 is in production.

Coming in fifth place this weekend is Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile with $4.2 million. The film isn’t a huge blockbuster, but it appears to be drawing in a steady flow of families every week. Unfortunately with a $50 million production budget it has a long way to go before it reaches any sort of profitability. 

Sixth place belongs to The Woman King with another $1.9 million added to its running total of $62.8 million while seventh place goes to another little horror movie that could: Terrifier 2 with an additional $1.8 million added to its box office. Perhaps reports that the film is so gruesome that it is causing people to pass out and vomit is what is drawing people to the theater. Although, potentially being vomited on while enjoying a nice tub of buttered popcorn and delicious Cherry Coke doesn’t sound like a good time to me, but what do I know, I’m crazy like that!

Spots 8 and 9 belong to Don’t Worry Darling and Amsterdam with $880k and $818k respectively.

In tenth place sees the surprise entrance of this years Palm d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness with $600k and a $1.4 million total after 3 weeks of release. The French black comedy received an 8 minute standing ovation at this years Cannes Film Festival. The film features Woody Harrleson in a supporting role while sadly it represents the final film for lead actress Charlbi Dean who passed away after a short illness on August 29, 2022.

This weekend represents the first time the combined box office was over $100 million since the weekend of July 22 when Nope topped the box office.

Were you one of the ones that helped propel Black Adam to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s best solo debut ever? If so, let us know what you thought in the comments and don’t forget to check out our Poll where we ask: What is your favorite comic book origin movie.