Box office estimates are in and it looks like Black Adam’s opening night take came in as the best ever for Dwayne Johnson. Reports have the film raking in $26.8M on its first Friday, which as Erik Davis of Fandango pointed out, puts it on track for over $60M this weekend. That total would make it the 2nd biggest DC Films opening that didn’t star one of the studio’s top Justice League stars.
Though it hasn’t been warmly received by film critics, Black Adam has been a hit with fans, garnering a B+ Cinemascore. The film looks to have about a three-week run ahead of it before Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever takes over the box office, so it’s possible that good word of mouth from opening weekend could stretch Black Adam’s box office legs into the next two weekends.
The $60M total opening weekend would have Black Adam come in at about half of what DC’s last theatrical release, The Batman, opened to in March. The Matt Reeves‘ directed film, which opened in nearly the same number of theaters, hauled in just over $134M over its first 3 days. However, Black Adam is hardly one of DC’s most well-known characters, so it faces a little tougher challenge, but it seems Johnson’s charisma and star power are the driving force for audiences this weekend.
