Black Adam’s projected opening weekend domestic box office numbers continue along a disappointing downward trend. Dwayne Johnson’s anti-hero film, which has been in development for 15 years, was originally predicted to pull in $65M+ with some estimates as high as $75-80M. Now, after the numbers from the Thursday previews have arrived, it looks like it would take a pretty serious course correction to get to $60M.
Gitesh Pandya of Box Office Guru shared the official box office take from Thursday’s showings which came in just under $8M.
As Pandya points out, the Tom Hardy-led Venom films took in $10M and $11.6M, respectively, ahead of $80M and $90M opening weekends. DC’s last theatrical release, The Batman, opened to $134M when it opened in March of 2022.
As of now, it looks like Black Adam’s box office has fallen victim to mixed reviews from the initial wave or critics who screened the film ahead of its wide release. Given Johnson’s star power and the less-than-secret return of Henry Cavill as Superman in a post-credit scene, it’s likely that DC Films was hoping the film would open between $80-100M. With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set to follow Black Adam into theaters in just three weeks, it’s unlikely the latter will have legs making the first two weekends more significant than normal.
