“Black Adam” stormed into theaters this weekend, snaring $67 million domestically.
via: Vibe
Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, Black Adam grossed $67M in the U.S. during its opening weekend and $140M worldwide, according to Deadline. The film raked in domestic returns of $26.7M through Friday (Oct. 21), $23.7M through Saturday (Oct. 22), and 16.6M on Sunday (Oct. 23), giving Johnson the most successful opening weekend at the box office of his career as a leading man.
Black Adam beat out the George Clooney and Julia Roberts led romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise for the top slot, which drew 16.34M domestically in its own opening weekend. It has also received positive reviews from critics, receiving a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The figure is the highest mark given for a DC release in over decade, surpassing ratings for previous films such as Joker (88%) and The Batman (87%).
The film, which has been in development since 2007, was originally intended to tell the origin stories of both DC comic characters Shazam and Black Adam, but was ultimately reworked to center solely around the tale of Black Adam at Johnson’s behest. The former WWE wrestler recently spoke on how his performance in Black Adam was inspired in part from his own tenure as a star in the ring, particularly the fans’ love-hate relationship with his cocky, yet charming persona.
“When I was a heel, and when I made that heel turn… people may not have agreed with my ‘why,’ and they may not have agreed with the things that I would do,” The Rock told Polygon. “At that time, wrestling was a lot different. The Attitude Era was much more violent. We got away with a lot of sh*t that you could not get away with today. While people may not have agreed with the heel Rock, they all understood why he was doing what he was doing because I had the opportunity to talk about it — and talk sh*t in that way that The Rock did. So there were a lot of parallels there. The connection to Black Adam is that while you may not agree and you may interpret him as a supervillain, antihero, protector, even a superhero… you may not agree with his philosophy, but everyone understands.”
The 50-year-old isn’t the only member of the Johnson clan to make history this year. His daughter, Simone Johnson, became the first fourth-generation wrestler in WWE history after making her debut in the ring as Ava Raine this past July.
