SUNDAY UPDATE, update what’s new…: Warner Bros/New Line/DC’s Black Adam has launched a $73M weekend from 76 international box office markets. Along with the $67 million domestic start, the global cume is $140 million. The offshore debut is at the higher end of the range we saw coming over the weekend, while the world is slightly ahead.
The Dwayne Johnson starrer was No. 1 in the vast majority of its overseas releases and the top US title in each of them. On like-for-likes, and using current exchange rates, the startup is still 27% ahead of Shazam!.
While Black Adam has been panned by critics, working in its favor, somewhat surprisingly for an edgy film, is family audiences. For example, Australia saw a 90% jump from Friday to Saturday, Korea was up 98% and France was up 67%. Audiences have given the film a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the best for a DC film in a decade.
The film did particularly well in markets where DC excels, such as Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia (breakdown below).
In IMAX, Black Adam grossed $10.8 million worldwide, including $4.5 million from 343 offshore screens.
There are two clear weekends for Black Adam before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins.
In the holding action, Paramount’s smile widens as the scare added $10 million for an $82 million overseas total. Worldwide, it’s $166.3 million.
Last weekend’s leader, Universal/Blumhouse’s Halloween Ends fell 62%, adding $6.2 million in 75 markets for an overseas take of $27.8 million, which is above of Halloween Kills at the same point. The overall total is $82 million. International is beating Don’t Breathe 2 and Spiral this session, while Latin America has surpassed Halloween Kills’ shelf life at current rates.
Universal/Working Title’s Ticket to Paradise finally conceded domestically that frame and is now approaching $100 million globally with $96.6 million through Sunday.
Also of note, Disney kicked off the overseas release of Searchlight’s The Banshees of Inisherin with an impressive No.2 start in the UK behind Black Adam.
Breakdowns are being updated below
MONTH…
PREVIOUS SATURDAY UPDATE: Black Adam added a run of 19 markets on Friday and has now amassed $30.2 million in its first three days at the international box office. It earned $15.8 million on Friday with the Dwayne Johnson starrer ranking as the No. 1 American film in all 76 opening markets. With these results, we’re still looking at the $70 million range for the overseas opening weekend.
In fresh starts, it added the UK on Friday with $2M on 1,500 screens and ranked as a clear #1 with a 58% share of the top 5 films. The results are +52% ahead of Shazam!, 53% ahead of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, 129% ahead of Jungle Cruise and 291% ahead of Skyscraper. IMAX’s share was a very solid 9% of the total box office.
Also joining the fray, Spain debuted Friday with $587,000 on 689 screens. Black Adam dominated the market with almost 60% share of the Top 5; premium formats are doing very well, capturing 4.6% of the total box office. Opening day results are leading Jumanji 2 (+38%), Shazam! (+79%), Skyscrapers (+187%) and Jungle Cruise (+231%).
Currently, the top 5 markets through Friday are UK ($2M), Mexico ($1.9M), Brazil ($1.8M), India ($1.7M ) and Australia ($1.7 million).
Anecdotally, we’re hearing that family play is stronger than expected.
More to come on Sunday…
EARLIER, FRIDAY: Warner Bros/New Line/DC’s Black Adam opened at the international box office on Wednesday and has climbed to $13.8 million from 57 markets through Thursday. It’s adding the UK and Spain today as the overseas rollout continues.
Opening markets for Wednesday included France and Korea. In the former, the Dwayne Johnson starrer has collected $1 million in its first two days. In Korea, the film leads all works by a wide margin. It is following the typical cycle in the market of a high start on Wednesday, then a drop on Thursday and a rebound on Friday and is up $1.3 million to date (this total does not reflect the offshore consumption of two days). on top).
A notable start on Thursday was India with $1 million, marking the second biggest debut for Warner Bros and the biggest for DC as well. Diwali holidays are ahead.
Elsewhere, Thursday’s $850,000 Mexico start was 9% above Johnson’s starrer Jumanji: The Next Level and 63% above his 2018 action blockbuster.
In Australia, Thursday’s opening of $750,000 was 80% higher than Skyscraper and 87% higher than Shazam!
While an overseas weekend isn’t truly achieved until we get Friday’s numbers, we expect Black Adam to land close to our projected opening range; the critics give it a bad rap, but the fans are loyal. As Anthony reported, the national forecast was robust.
The public is hungry for new products, and wherever it lands, we hope this will be the starting point for times to come.
More to come over the weekend…