As expected, Black Adam has roared to the top of the box office both at home and abroad, setting a new record for star and producer Dwayne Johnson in the process.
The latest estimates have the DCEU blockbuster coming in at a robust $67 million, which makes it the highest-grossing opening weekend for a feature film with the 50 year-old action icon front-and-center in the lead role. Globally, the introduction of the Man in Black has already brought in $140 million, so things are off to a flying star for the superhero epic that’s long been heralded as the one to change the hierarchy of power.
True to form, Hollywood’s foremost hype man didn’t waste any time in taking to social media to thank the fans for turning out in their droves to see Black Adam, and he’s already teasing that work on a sequel is about to get underway.
It’s a recurring theme of Johnson’s to hype second installments as soon as possible, with news of a Jungle Cruise follow-up coming not long after the theme park attraction adaptation opened last summer. That one might have to get put on the back burner, though, because with Henry Cavill back in the fold as Superman and a showdown with Zachary Levi’s Shazam surely on the cards, too, the DCEU could be taking up a lot of time for its leading man and producer for the foreseeable future.
Now we just have to wait and see how high Black Adam can fly in the coming weeks, because the comic book genre has almost always tended to be exceedingly front-loaded, and it’s only a couple of weeks until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives.