Before the Friday arrival of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Warner Bros./DC’s “Black Adam” is maintaining its top place at the box office with an additional $18.5 million, bringing its domestic tally up to $137 million after three weekends.
“Black Adam” continues to follow the box office trajectory of the Marvel movie “Eternals” from last year, since they have nearly equal domestic totals up to this point, with prospects of a Chinese release dwindling. If that holds even while “Wakanda Forever” steals away a significant percentage of the movie’s audience, “Black Adam” will end up grossing anywhere between $164 million domestically and $400 million globally.
Even if “Eternals” was a letdown for the MCU, it’s safe to assume that the Eternals will appear in subsequent movies due to the franchise’s proven appeal. But it’s unclear how Dwayne Johnson’s grandiose ambitions for his antihero, including a projected clash with Henry Cavill’s Superman, will be impacted by these mediocre box office figures for DC, which is banking on new CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran to set a new direction for the division.
Sony/”One Crunchyroll’s Piece Film Red,” an anime film that was anticipated to make the vast bulk of its box office take on opening weekend, is the only new release on this pre-Marvel weekend. But because of recent hits like “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” Crunchyroll’s opening weekend revenue has increased, and “One Piece” is no exception. A $9.4 million opening weekend from 2,410 cinemas was a significant improvement from the $1.3 million “One Piece: Stampede” earned from an event release in 2019.
“Ticket to Paradise” by Universal, which has earned $8.5 million in its third weekend and has already surpassed its $60 million budget by $46.7 million domestically and $137 million globally, is in third place. Even with “Wakanda Forever” in cinemas, “Ticket” could be able to escape significant weekend declines due to its attraction to older consumers.
The horror movie “Smile” from Paramount earned $4 million during its sixth weekend in cinemas, placing it at No. 4, bringing its domestic total to $99 million. After surpassing “Nope’s” global total of $202 million globally, “Smile” will become the second horror movie this year to surpass $100 million domestically, after Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” With $3.8 million in its second weekend, Lionsgate’s “Prey for the Devil” rounds out the top 5, giving the horror movie a $13.8 million 10-day total.