Black Adam Has Biggest Box Office Opening Ever For The Rock In A Solo Movie

[UPDATE] Black Adam's box office numbers are in, and the film earned $67 million in the US this weekend, which made it the biggest start of all time for a solo movie for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The movie made many millions more from international markets for a global first-weekend start of $140 million.

"The success of Black Adam is truly a dream come true," Hiram Garcia of Johnson's Seven Bucks production company said in a statement to Deadline. "Our goal with this film was to establish several new characters in the DCEU that would give us an opportunity, in success, to really expand the universe, but most importantly we wanted to take care of the fans. We've been listening to their feedback for years and we were determined to give them what they wanted."

The original story is below.

15 years since being announced, the highly anticipated Black Adam movie has arrived. Co-executive produced and starring Dwayne Johnson, whose box office power has grown exponentially since the initial announcement, hits theaters this week and the big question will finally be answered: was it worth the wait for Warner Bros. and DC, much less for Johnson and his fans?

Looking at early numbers that Deadline has projected, with a pretty dry box office, predictions for the film are coming in hot, but they have to stay that way for it to really make an impact. DC and Warner Bros. definitely need a win.

Black Adam was looking good on the domestic side, pacing with a $65M-$70M projection. Although that forecast has calmed to an even lower $60M, which could be in correlation with reviews at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, that number could change again with Black Adam hitting all premium formats including Imax, starting at 3 P.M. Thursday.

Looking at this year's previous DC entry, Matt Reeves' The Batman, it pulled a $134M opening weekend, eventually getting $369.3M domestic gross. That's also factoring in a 45-day exclusive theatrical window before hitting HBO Max, which a lot of fans waited for. However, it also maintained a solid 85% RT score, with an audience score of 87%.

The biggest champion of Black Adam is Johnson himself who has been plugging away at his massive social media following nonstop for almost two years now, causing a frenzy of fans getting acquainted with one of DC's lesser-known characters. With Johnson on the megaphone, this could bode well for what we could see overseas.

The film is expecting an international start in the ballpark of $65M-$75M, which puts the anti-hero's solo outing with a worldwide opening between $125M-$135M. Black Adam goes abroad Wednesday, starting in France and Korea. The film will find itself in 76 international markets including other majors Germany, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and the UK by Friday. There is no China release date announced, but it will arrive in Japan later in early December.