As the calendar flipped over to November this past week, Hollywood didn't put up much of an effort to provide theaters with new wide releases – something that we've seen happen multiples times in 2022. With Halloween in the rear view mirror and Ryan Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set to take over multiplexes the world over in just a few days, the box office crown was left open to be taken for a third time by the star power of Dwayne Johnson in Jaume Collet-Serra's Black Adam.
Check out the Top 10 for this past weekend at the box office below, and join me after for analysis!
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Black Adam | $18,520,000 | $137,365,701 | 1 | 3,985 |
| 2. One Piece Film: Red* | $9,475,251 | $9,475,251 | Row 1 - Cell 3 | 2,367 |
| 3. Ticket To Paradise | $8,510,000 | $46,734,120 | 2 | 4,066 |
| 4. Smile | $3,999,925 | $99,107,000 | 4 | 3,046 |
| 5. Prey For The Devil | $3,875,000 | $13,643,710 | 3 | 2,980 |
| 6. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile | $3,360,000 | $36,566,868 | 7 | 3,005 |
| 7. The Banshees Of Inisherin | $2,001,000 | $3,034,102 | 11 | 895 |
| 8. Till | $1,875,580 | $6,583,014 | 6 | 2,136 |
| 9. Halloween Ends | $1,400,000 | $63,445,190 | 5 | 2,929 |
| 10. Terrifier 2 | $1,220,075 | $9,858,425 | 8 | 1,245 |
In Its Last Weekend At #1 Domestically, Black Adam's Ticket Sales Exceed $300 Million Worldwide
As I have emphasized in the last few weeks, analysis of Black Adam's journey at the box office has to be done keeping in mind the project's budget. According to Variety, it took a reported production budget of $195 million to bring the DC Comics property to life, and that notably doesn't include costs for marketing, publicity, and development. The blockbuster has had a mountain to climb in the accounting department since it was first released in mid-October... and only now are the numbers are starting to look a bit rosier.
It can't be said that Black Adam is doing particularly well domestically. It's now ranked in the Top 10 releases of 2022, but achieving that ranking meant pushing past Jordan Peele's Nope, which is a film that was made with a budget about a third the size of the Dwayne Johnson tentpole release. To date, per The Numbers, the movie has made $137.4 million in the United States and Canada, which means that it is at minimum $200 million away from accompanying this year's other major superhero movies on the chart (Taika Waititi's Thor: Love And Thunder made $343.3 million; Matt Reeves' The Batman made $369.3 million; and Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness made $411.3 million).
Black Adam is still far away from those titles in the worldwide box office rankings as well, but at the very least the numbers look better when put in context with the budget. Thanks to the global earnings from ticket sales this past weekend, the movie has now made $319.7 million to date.
Black Adam's ticket sales are surely going to plummet next weekend, as almost the entirety of its target audience is going to be purchasing tickets to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and it probably means that the movie is going to go down in the books as a financial disappointment for Warner Bros. There is, however, a silver lining to be observed, which is that it may still have set the table for a more positive future.
Dwayne Johnson may not have successfully changed the hierarchy of power in the DC universe with his first comic book movie, but the star is now an established presence in the DC Extended Universe, and thus the potential exists for him to be a part of greater success that may build in the years to come with James Gunn and Peter Safran now the co-CEOs of DC Films. The origin story heavy lifting for the character is out of the way and now the promise of Black Adam vs. Superman can be fulfilled – and presumably that two-hander would be a much bigger draw for audiences than the former's solo film.
Black Adam may go down in the books as a loss for Warner Bros. in 2022, but taking proper advantage of the potential that it leaves on the board will be the way to reclaim its legacy in the next decade.
One Piece Film: Red Is The Third Anime Movie To Make A Big Impression Thus Far In 2022
While all of the major studios decided to not put out a new wide release this past Friday, Crunchyroll took advantage of the situation and ended up putting out the film that claimed second place in the weekend's Top 10. Gorō Taniguchi's One Piece Film: Red, the fifteenth title in the One Piece Film series (and based on the manga of the same name), made $9.5 million this past weekend – putting it ahead of Ol Parker's Ticket To Paradise in tickets sales over the last three days.
This is the second time in the last few months that Crunchyroll has captured attention with a big screen release, though the numbers aren't quite as big. In August, the distributor had Tetsuro Kodama's Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero go head-to-head with Baltasar Kormákur's Beast, and it won the weekend earning $21.1 million.
It marks the third time that we've seen a widly released anime film in the Top 3 of the weekend box office thus far in 2022, as Seong-Hu Park's Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie made $18 million in its first few days of release in March and took second place in the rankings behind The Batman (which was in its third weekend at the time).
Smile Prepares To Eclipse $100 Million Domestically
Spooky season may technically be over, but that doesn't mean that we're done celebrating the brilliant horror hits of this past October. Parker Finn's Smile has been doing exceptional business since its release in he middle of last month, and as a result it is about to cross a stellar milestone. With the estimated $4 million made by the creepy feature in the last few days, it has now made $99 million domestically – which means it will soon become one of only 15 titles to reach nine figures in 2022.
The significance of this is primarily registered in recognition of the fact that Smile only cost $17 million to make. It's well on its way to being remembered as one of the biggest success stories of the year.
As mentioned earlier, this upcoming Friday will see the highly anticipated arrival of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the question about its success isn't whether or not it will do well, but instead about how well it will do. Could it top the opening of Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which made $187.4 million when it hit theaters in May? Head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see the results – and keep track of everything that is on the way in what remains of the year by reading our 2022 Movie Release Calendar.
