As expected, black adam easily took the No. 1 spot this weekend with $67 million, which is a personal best for the ever likeable Dwayne Johnson in a starring role. Compared to what the weekend originally looked like, this is more in line with our initial predictions from earlier this week. If we look at the entire DCEU, the number sits in the middle of other origin stories Aquaman (opening $67.8 million, domestic total $335 million) and Shazam! (opening $53.5 million, domestic total $140.3 million) while it falls far short of titles such as Steel man (opening $116.6 million, domestic total $291 million), batman versus superman ($166 million opening, $330.3 million domestic total), suicide squad (opening $133.6 million, domestic total $325.1 million), wonder woman (opening $103.2 million, domestic total $412.5 million) and even Justice League (opening $93.8 million, domestic total $229 million).
The good news is that the film seems to be playing well with audiences who have given it a good audience score of 89% with a B+ cinemascore. Without major releases until November 11, when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever outputs (and should have a massive opening) you can expect black adam stay atop the box office until then. Of course, with a production budget of nearly $200 million before marketing expenses, the film will need to bank over the next three weeks if it even wants to get close to breaking even. The good news is that the film got off to a strong start internationally with nearly $70 million and that’s before the film opened in China, which historically propels movies like these to profitability. But as I said in our update yesterday, this movie is being used as a new starting 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 sets up a series of films that should cover these losses.
The romantic comedy comes second ticket to paradise with an expected amount of $16.3 million. Critical reception for it was a bit negative, but no one could deny the chemistry of its two mega stars which propelled the film to an excellent 89% audience rating and an A-cinema score. 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 schedule for the rest of the year, which means he should qualify for a very respectable raw final.
Surprising absolutely no one, Halloween ends took a massive drop in week 2. Losing 80% of its viewership to end up with just $8 million. It’s a very sad ending for one of the most enduring horror franchises of all time and one of the most evil female leads in cinematic history. The first David Gordon Green Halloween The film was a great return to form for the franchise with a great story and gruesome kills. Even the second halloween kills had solid violence and gore even though it felt lacking in the story department. I’ll never understand why in the last film in the franchise (until the inevitable reboot) they decided to take a complete left turn and focus on an entirely new character while pushing back the two leads that made franchise what it is. You can’t even say they thought audiences would like it, as the film’s new star Rohan Campbell was told before he took on the role that people wouldn’t be happy with the film!
The decline of Halloween ends is good news for surprise horror hit Smile as it continues its excellent box office run by raking in an additional $8.3 million for a third-place finish this weekend. With nearly $85 million made at the domestic box office, Smile achieved more than five times its production budget. It could well go up to $100 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard that soon Smile 2 is in production.
Getting to fifth place this weekend is Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile with $4.2 million. The movie isn’t a huge blockbuster, but it seems to draw a steady stream of families every week. Unfortunately, with a production budget of $50 million, there is still a long way to go before it achieves any kind of profitability.
Sixth place belongs to The female 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: Terrifying 2 with another $1.8 million added to its box office. Maybe reporting that the movie is so horrible it makes people pass out and throw up is what draws people to the theater. Although, potentially being puked on it while enjoying a nice pot of buttered popcorn and delicious Cherry Coke doesn’t sound like a good time to me, but what the hell, I’m crazy like that!
Spots 8 and 9 belong to don’t worry darling and amsterdam with $880,000 and $818,000 respectively.
Tenth place sees the surprise entry of this year’s Palme d’Or winner triangle of sadness with $600,000 and a total of $1.4 million after 3 weeks of release. The French black comedy received an 8-minute standing ovation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film features Woody Harrleson in a supporting role as it sadly represents the final film for lead actress Charlbi Dean, who died following a short illness on August 29, 2022.
This weekend marks the first time the combined box office has topped $100 million since the weekend of July 22, when Nope at the top of the box office.
Were you one of those who helped propel black adam Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s best first solo? If so, let us know what you thought of it in the comments and don’t forget to check out our poll where we ask you: what’s your favorite comic book origin movie.
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