The Rock had its best domestic opening weekend yet with the comic book adaptation premiere Black Adam. A passion project for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that was many years in the making, the film opened with $67 million in the United States and Canada. That surpasses Johnson’s Hobbs and Shaw which opened at $60.03 million which was the previous career best for the wrestler turned actor. These figures are also ahead of the initial forecasts for Black Adam which were closer to $60 million.
The financial success of Black Adam also comes despite early reviews giving the film a negative score on Rotten Tomatoes. Contrary to the 40% score on the Tomatometer, however, Black Adam was ranked with a much higher score of 90% with its ratings. It may not be a critical hit, but the film is an incredible success with its strong ticket sales and high praise from most moviegoers. The Rock also quickly pointed to the success on social media.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you for making it BLACK ADAM a monumental and historic WIN this weekend,” Johnson said in an Instagram post. “New Era. Audience first. ENJOY THE MOVIE TODAY!!!”
In a separate post about the high audience score, Johnson added: “This phenomenal 90% AUDIENCE SCORE for BLACK ADAM is so gratifying for so many reasons. 15 years. THANK YOU everyone around the world for all the amazing love and support. The only thing that matters to me in the end is sending people home happy. And I will always fight for that.”
Halloween endings fell quickly after debuting at the No. 1 spot
In the meantime, Halloween ends saw a pretty sharp drop from opening weekend. Although it was at number 1, it dropped 80% in its second week, dropping back to number 4 with $8 million earned; it opened for just over $41 million. This would be one of the sharpest drops ever seen at the box office for a film that opened in the No. 1 spot. As for why the fall is so steep, despite the slasher sequel arriving during the spooky holiday season, it can be partly attributed to its availability on Peacock coupled with the film’s negative reception from fans and critics alike.
Maybe the hard reception to Halloween ends had some horror fans who would rather go to a different genre title, Smilewho made $8.3 million to surpass Halloween endslands at number 3. That’s under the rom-com Ticket to paradise, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, which opened for $16.3 million. The family comedy Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile completes the top 5 with $4.2 million earned.
You can find more information about the checkout at: The numbers and you can check out the full top ten below.
- Black Adam – $67 million
- Ticket to paradise – $16.3 million
- Smile – $8.3 million
- Halloween ends – $8 million
- Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile – $4.2 million
- The woman king – $1.9 million
- terrier 2 – $1.89 million
- Don’t worry baby – $880K
- Amsterdam – $818K
- Triangle of sadness – $600K