Black Adam's box office is off to a good start, as its opening night is the best for a DC Extended Universe movie since 2018's Aquaman. Dwayne Johnson has spent the last decade trying to join the DCEU as Black Adam, a powerful anti-hero. The original plans for Black Adam to be Shazam!'s villain were scrapped in favor of The Rock headlining a solo Black Adam movie. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film focuses on what happens when Black Adam is reawakened in the present day, encounters the Justice Society, and fights to protect his home country of Kahndaq. Black Adam has received mixed reviews upon its release.
Since Black Adam is meant to be part of a new era for the DCEU, there is a lot of attention on how well the movie will succeed. Early projections for the movie had Dwayne Johnson's superhero generating a $70 million opening weekend. This would continue a strong year for DC at the box office since The Batman made $128M in its opening weekend. However, the projections for Black Adam's box office have since dipped a bit with expectations adjusting to a $50-$60M opening. This comes in spite of Dwayne Johnson doing everything he can to generate more buzz, including teasing Black Adam's post-credits scene and the major events that unfold.
The first box office report for Black Adam is in, as Forbes shared the news that the movie earned $7.6 million in the Thursday opening night previews domestically. Black Adam's opening night box office is the best for a DCEU movie since Aquaman, which made $9M opening night and had a $70M opening weekend in December 2018. For the record, The Batman and Joker are not DCEU movies and did open much higher. Black Adam's opening night is better than Shazam! ($5.9M), Birds of Prey ($4M), and The Suicide Squad ($4.1M). Warner Bros. did not report Wonder Woman 1984's opening night box office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Can Black Adam Match Aquaman's Box Office?
The Rock's movie should open on par with Aquaman domestically, which made $335M in total during its domestic run and became the only DCEU movie to surpass $1 billion worldwide. Black Adam matching Aquaman's box office heights would be the best-case scenario for the movie and a clear sign from audiences that they are excited about the DCEU's direction. Jason Momoa's solo movie fared better with critics, but The Rock's film looks to be more well-received with general audiences. There is a good three-week stretch for Black Adam to dominate the box office domestically if it can continue this strong start.
It should not be expected that Black Adam will be another $1 billion DCEU hit like Aquaman, but no one was predicting such a big haul for Jason Momoa's movie in 2018. Dwayne Johnson is a bigger box office star and his movies have repeatedly overdelivered financially. However, it would take a huge performance by Black Adam internationally for Aquaman's heights to be reached. If Black Adam does surpass expectations and accumulate a massive box office haul, Dwayne Johnson would really change the hierarchy of the DCEU.
Source: Forbes
