'Black Adam' Overcomes Negative Reviews, Delivers The Rock's Biggest Opening Weekend Ever

It looks like audiences definitely smelled what The Rock is cooking this weekend.

DC's"Black Adam" got a rather chilly reception from critics, but it still managed to have a big opening weekend at the box office. Box Office Mojo (BOM) reports that the film drew an estimated $67 million for its opening weekend.

It also drew another $73 million overseas for a total worldwide take of $140 million. This marks the biggest box office opening weekend for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson of his film career thus far.

The good news for "Black Adam" is it still had a decent opening weekend despite receiving overall bad reviews. The film is currently sitting at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film appeared to fare better with audiences, as BOM notes that it drew a B+ CinemaScore.

The box office tally gives The Rock the biggest opening weekend for a vehicle starring him of his career. It tops 2019's "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw," which drew a $60 million opening weekend at the domestic box office. It also topped 2015's "San Andreas," which opened to $54.5 million.

The only drawback is that "Black Adam" still has a long road ahead to reach some level of profitability for Warner Bros. Pictures. The film has a reported price tag of about $200 million. Not to mention, that means it could have an even higher cost for distribution and marketing, and comic book superhero movies such as this tend to have extremely large marketing budgets.

However, if "Black Adam" can build sustained word of mouth and hold on in subsequent weekends, it will likely manage to do okay. "Hobbs & Shaw," starring The Rock, managed to make $173 million domestically and about $759 million worldwide in 2019.

DC's "Shazam" opened lower than "Black Adam" in 2019, drawing $53 million for its opening weekend before eventually reaching $140 million domestically and $365 million worldwide. The Black Adam character was initially conceived to be a villain for the "Shazam" film before The Rock spearheaded the character getting his own solo movie. The Rock was first attached to the role over 15 years ago, way back in 2007, before the film was finally released.

Another element "Black Adam" has working in its favor is that the comic book film doesn't look to have much in the way of competition at the box office until "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" opens in theaters next month. "Wakanda Forever" doesn't open in theaters until November 11.

The only new major release out next week is Lionsgate's "Prey for the Devil," which is a horror film and will not have the wider appeal of a movie such as "Black Adam." So, The Rock will have a couple more weekends to dominate the box office scene until it's knocked off by "Wakanda Forever."

As reported by The Blast, Marvel's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is currently tracking at a $175 million opening weekend at the box office. If the tracking holds, that would give the film the second-biggest opening weekend at the box office of 2022. The first was "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" at $187.4 million earlier in May.

Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment's "Black Adam," starring The Rock, is now playing in theaters.