Box office: ‘Black Adam’ opening top, ‘Ticket to Paradise’ second

The hierarchy of power at the box office is changing. Warner Brothers’ “Black Adam” is aiming for number one in the domestic charts ahead of another re-release “Ticket to Paradise”.

Dwayne Johnson’s vehicle landed a price of $26.8 million on opening day, including $7.6 million in Thursday previews. The DC Comics adaptation debuts in 4,402 locations across North America.

Some competitors are predicting that the DC Comics adaptation will gross $62.2 million in its opening weekend, which would be its first major release to debut at over $50 million since Disney’s Thor: Love and Love Thunder” cost $144 million in July. Movie attendance has largely slowed since the promisingly busy summer season, and cinemas have been clamoring for a new film to shock foot traffic the way Black Adam is.

With a production budget of $195 million, it takes a box office success to break even.

Produced by New Line Cinema, Seven Bucks Productions, Flynn Picture Company and DC Films, Black Adam follows a god-like being who wakes up after 5,000 years and is really pissed off. The Justice Society of America tries to calm his temper. In addition to Johnson’s anti-heroes, the film’s roster of heroes also includes Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone.

“Black Adam” has received largely negative reviews, with diversity‘s Peter Debruge writes that “the surprisingly serious (yet still fairly scrawny) project robs Johnson of his greatest superpower — his sense of humor — and gives the now-serious star a chance to play a character with some interesting contradictions.”

Ticket to Paradise, on the other hand, is a rom-com starring Roberts and Clooney as two exes who are forced to reconcile when they find out their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) is planning to marry someone she just found met. It has already been a hit abroad and has grossed $72.6 million to date.

There’s more to come…