Box Office: ‘Black Adam’ Rocks Out With Solid $67 Million Weekend

Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Films' Black Adam took the top two spots at the box office. It was the biggest non-Fast & Furious debut weekend ever, and it was also the biggest in a star vehicle. In terms of DC Films-related launches, it's bigger than the other ones. Black Adam cost $196 million. The live-action comic book superhero movie became the highest grossing movie of the year with $334 million domestically. Black Adam received reviews that were closer to Justice League than Wonder Woman.

The pans didn't hurt because they still promised what audiences wanted, like The Rock as a kid-friendly invincible killing machine amid IMAX-worthy spectacle and DC superhero tropes. The opening of Black Adam implied that the audience was a mix of DC fans, Rock fans and those who consider themselves part of both fandoms. It is implied that Johnson's star power only means so much when dealing with a C-level character. It was the first time since Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider in 2007 that a big movie featured a movie star who was bigger than the main character.

It was not about Black Adam fighting Superman in a theoretical spin-off. Can Johnson survive a fight with Levi? It was the entire package, including being the first four-quadrant, kid-friendly franchise tentpole. It won't be easy for a while. It is possible that it will be kneecapped by Black Panther: Wakanda forever in the four-day weekend. This time, it won't cut it because of the domestic and worldwide totals. The overseas business is estimated to be worth more than $150 million. We don't know if Black Adam will do well in China or not.

The global total of the company was $430 million. Black Adam will make more money in the US than Jumanji 3 but its budget is less than Jungle Cruise. The budget for most of Johnson's star vehicle hits was around $90 million to $200 million. China wasn't needed to make a profit. Kong: Skull Island made $567 million worldwide from a $60 million debut and $168 million in China. Ready Player One made $135 million domestically, $225 million in China and $581 million worldwide.

Since Covid, that differential has changed. It is a problem that "only" makes overseas grosses on par with "Rampage" and only crosses $300 million. The best-case scenario would be for Black Adam to get a China release and party like it's 2017, or to thrive and earn enough overseas to not need China to boost the global box office. Out of $1.762 billion, the Jumanji sequels didn't make any money.

The future appears bright for now. The domestic debut was on par with expectations. Kids showed up yesterday and today for kid-friendly superhero violence because of reviews. Even though it's the first kid-friendly tentpole in 3.5 months, it may still be able to make it into Black Panther. Four-quadrant tentpoles for the rest of the year include Black Adam, Black Panther 2, Puss in Boots 2, and Disney's Strange World. It's only a matter of time before China makes a difference in a film's success or failure, and it has occasionally made the difference between success and failure in some films.

I don't know what this means for DC Films since the goalposts keep changing as one new corporate owner after another changes the direction and undermines what was working DC Comics movies of different sizes, scales and sub-genres were made by Walter Hamada, who was doing what we all wanted. His run would be seen as successful without Covid and Max. I'm pretty sure he'll land in a place that's safe and plentiful. His successor will either do what he did and try to sell it as a bold, innovative approach or try to copy it and it will be just as bad. Black Adam is a hit for the two companies.