Warner Bros. has continued to struggle when it comes to bring the DC universe to the big screen. While most of the films that have come out have been successful, actually getting those movies out has continued to be a challenge. However, the next of the DC movies will be here before long, and it stars one of the biggest movie stars in the world in Dwayne Johnson, so perhaps it’s little surprise that Black Adam is looking to have an impressive opening weekend.
According to THR, Black Adam is currently tracking toward a $70-$75 million domestic opening weekend. This would put the movie slightly behind what Venom did in October 2018. That movie largely exceeded expectations on the way to an $80 million opening.
Really, the Black Adam numbers should be seen as being as good, or even better, than Venom, considering those are pre-pandemic numbers, and while we’ve seen some movies do extremely well post-pandemic, most films are still dealing with box office numbers impacted by the pandemic.
$75 million is a solid number for a non-summer opening weekend for a brand new superhero franchise. And, of course, the movie doesn’t come out for a couple more weeks, and as marketing buzz builds between now and release, the odds are that if numbers change, they’re likely to only go up from where they are now.
Black Adam is an interesting case when it comes to recent superhero movies because the genre is generally driven by characters, with audiences looking forward to seeing a particular hero on the screen, with less focus being given to whoever happens to be playing the role. In this case Black Adam isn’t a character that is well known to the general public, so the star power of Dwayne Johnson is going to be doing its share of work to get people out to the theater.
The success of Black Adam is potentially a big deal for Warner Bros. and the future DC films on the slate. Originally, we were expecting Aquaman: The Lost Kingdoms and then Shazam!: Fury of the Gods to release at the end of this year, but now, both movies, as well as The Flash are on the 2023 movie release calendar. Black Adam is the only DC movie coming out in the final months of 2022, making it the last potential blockbusters for the studio this year.
Between Dwayne Johnson himself as Black Adam and the fact that the movie will also introduce the Justice Society of America, the franchise opportunity for Black Adam is quite high. There are expectations that Black Adam and Shazam will cross paths at some point once and, of course, Black Adam as a standalone franchise for Johnson is a strong possibility.
