BLACK ADAM opening | TICKET TO PARADISE opening | October 21 to 23, 2022 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: October 21 to 23, 2022
1) Black Adam opening
- Black Adam is a villain character spin-off of Shazam!. The connection between the films is thin; the characters share the same universe and backstory, but Black Adam did not have a direct role in Shazam!. Black Adam is a bigger movie, with a bigger cast and twice the budget (around $200m, vs. $100m). As a spin-off, this is a strong opening — it’s more than +10% better than Shazam! (on average, spin-offs open down -55% from the previous film), at a very good level.
- As a new superhero series, this is a mid-level opening. Superheroes are elite, very well-reviewed movies; they average $80.4m domestically when starting a new series. That average includes Avengers ($207m domestic opening), Black Panther ($202m), Captain Marvel ($153m), and Suicide Squad ($134m) — some of the biggest films in the history of the business. Black Adam should do well abroad and be comfortably profitable:
- The Shazam!-Black Adam-Shazam! 2 sequence is unconventional. Normally, superhero spin-offs come on the 5th episode of a series, not the 2nd — they have a longer runway — and there are 36 months between films (this release came after 18 months, and there will be six months before Shazam! 2). Shazam! 1 was well-reviewed (90 Rotten Tomatoes), and superhero follow-up sequels do well; Shazam! 2 should maintain its success.
- All of this is a positive and steady step forward for DC Comics. Black Adam and Shazam! have very good futures on the big screen. That’s an improvement over Wonder Woman/Wonder Woman 2 and Suicide Squad/Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad 2, which were lost during the pandemic.
2) Ticket to Paradise opening
