'Man in Black' Handles Dwayne Johnson as Leading Man of Biggest Box Office Weekend
NEW YORK (AP) – Warner Bros.’s “Black Adam” hits theaters Sunday for an estimated $67 million, according to studio estimates, giving Dwayne Johnson the biggest box office weekend as a lead and debuting his decade-long DC Comics character. . to bring it to the big screen.
“Black Man” was a $200 million bid to upset the balance of power in the DC Extended Universe dominated by Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman. The $67 million debut was pretty shy of this stratosphere, despite the considerable draw that Johnson starred in his first superhero movie. Still, “Black Adam” managed its highest opening weekend since “Thor: Love and Thunder” debuted in July with $143 million.
“,”type”:”video”,”meta”:{“url”:”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaV7mmc9HGw”,”type”:”video”,”version”:”1.0″,”title”:”Black Adam | Official Trailer | DC”,”author”:”DC”,”author_url”:”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiifkYAs_bq1pt_zbNAzYGg”,”provider_name”:”YouTube”,”description”:”The world needed a hero, it got #BLACKADAM Only in theaters October 21.nnStarring: Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Quintessa SwindellnnSubscribe To DC: https://www.youtube.com/dcentertainmentnn#BlackAdam #DC #DCComicsnnConnect with DC Online:nFollow DC on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dccomics/nLike DC on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/dc/nFollow DC on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DCComicsnVisit the DC WEBSITE: https://www.dccomics.com/nnThe official home of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and the rest of The World’s Greatest Super Heroes!nnBlack Adam | Official Trailer | DCnhttps://www.youtube.com/dcentertainment”,”thumbnail_url”:”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JaV7mmc9HGw/maxresdefault.jpg”,”thumbnail_width”:1280,”thumbnail_height”:720,”cache_age”:86400,”options”:{“_start”:{“label”:”Start from”,”value”:””,”placeholder”:”ex.: 11, 1m10s”},”_end”:{“label”:”End on”,”value”:””,”placeholder”:”ex.: 11, 1m10s”},”_cc_load_policy”:{“label”:”Closed captions”,”value”:false},”click_to_play”:{“label”:”Hold load & play until clicked”,”value”:false}}},”fullBleed”:false,”flags”:[],”enhancements”:{},”options”:{“theme”:”news”,”device”:”desktop”,”editionInfo”:{“id”:”us”,”name”:”U.S.”,”link”:”https://www.huffpost.com”,”locale”:”en_US”},”slideshowAd”:{“scriptTags”:[],”otherHtml”:””},”slideshowEndCard”:{“scriptTags”:[{“attribs”:{},”scriptBody”:”rn (function(){rn var c = document.getElementById(‘taboola-endslate-thumbnails’);rn c.id += ‘-‘ + Math.round(Math.random()*1e16);rn rn var taboolaParams = {rn loader: “//cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/aol-huffingtonpost/loader.js”,rn mode: “thumbnails-b”,rn container: c.id,rn placement: “Endslate Thumbnails”,rn target_type: “mix”rn };rn rn if (typeof window.modulousQueue === “function”) {rn twindow.modulousQueue.add(function(){ doTaboola(taboolaParams); });rn } else {rn tdoTaboola(taboolaParams);rn }rn }());rn”}],”otherHtml”:”
“Black Adam,” which portrays Johnson as an ancient Egyptian summoned to the present, has suffered particularly bad reviews (40% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Moviegoers were kinder and gave the movie a B+ CinemaScore. It raised $73 million internationally for a $140 million global shipment.
“Black Man” took a detour to reach the theaters. Your character was originally from 2019’s “Shazam!” He was also supposed to start out as a villain. before executives return to give Black Adam a standalone feature. The silly “Shazam!”, which cost close to $100 million to make, opened with $53.5 million in ticket sales and was a huge hit with $366 million worldwide.
Still, the stakes were higher for “Black Man”. While promoting the film, Johnson did not shy away from his desire to follow “Black Adam” with a showdown with Superman. But whether the “Black Man” receipts are enough to warrant this remains unclear. Under new leadership, Warner Bros. DC Comics is overhauling its approach to adaptations.
Warner Bros.’s head of distribution, Jeff Goldstein, celebrated the results as the personally best outside of the “Fast and the Furious” films for Johnson, and a broad-based PG-13 film to which audiences responded better than critics. Still, it’s a transitional time for Warner Bros. to reorganize its DC unit, as the studio seeks more success in the Marvel dimension. On the next tap “Shazam! Wrath of the Gods” in March.
“It’s all about making good movies. It’s all about finding the right scenarios,” said Goldstein. “Our studio is definitely undergoing a major overhaul in our production leadership, style and approach. I think we can crack this nut. We are definitely focused on doing that.”
Set in Bali and starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, the romantic comedy “Ticket to Heaven” proved to be clever counterprogramming. The release of Universal Pictures debuted with $16.3 million, well above the recent sales of rom-coms that have struggled at the box office in recent years. The film is already a hit abroad, when it was released last month and has accrued $80.2 million in ticket sales.
Earlier this month, the genre-defining LGBTQ landmark Universal’s R-rated “Bros” debuted with a disappointing $4.8 million. “Ticket to Heaven” had a notable advantage in its two stars and was particularly appealing to older audiences; The studio said that 64% of ticket buyers are aged 35 or older.
“This weekend has been an event movie for all audiences, but especially for older audiences who might find it difficult to get into theaters,” said Universal distribution manager Jim Orr. “We all know that this is a demographic that doesn’t quite run out of seeing movies that hit theaters over the weekend. That gives us great encouragement for the weeks and months to come.”
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at data firm Comscore, noted that it was the first weekend since July with an opening of $65 million and totaling more than $100 million in domestic ticket sales. He said that with Johnson, the appeal of both “Ticket to Heaven” and “Black Man” owes a great deal to his star power.
“Despite some headwinds for the DC brand, this was the engine that really pulled the box office and it wasn’t known as a character,” Dergarabedian said. “This is a very strong starting point for Dwayne Johnson in the DC Comics mix. It’s like a box office supercharger. It’s forty percent Rotten Tomatoes, but people want to see Dwayne Johnson on the big screen because he’s bigger than life.”
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“Halloween Ends,” the best movie of the past week, took a big hit in its second weekend. The Universal horror sequel, released simultaneously on Peacock, is down 80% at $8 million. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures’ “Smile” continued to defy the fallouts typical for horror movies. “Smile” came in third with $8.4 million in its fourth week, bringing overall domestic sales to $84.3 million.
With more critically acclaimed award contenders heading to theaters, Searchlight Pictures’ “The Banshees of Inisherin” kicked off with one of the year’s best movie theater averages. Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, Martin McDonagh’s drama opened to $181,000 in four theaters, with an average of $45,250 per movie. For A24, Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as a father and daughter on vacation, also made a solid debut in four theaters, averaging $16,589 per movie.
Estimated ticket sales in US and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
