Warner Bros./DC’s “Black Adam” is holding on to the No. 1 spot at the box office for one more weekend before the release of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” on Friday, adding $18.5 million for a domestic total of $137 million after three weekends.
With hopes of a Chinese release diminishing, “Black Adam” continues to follow the box office path of last year’s Marvel film “Eternals,” as they have virtually identical domestic totals to this point. If that continues even as “Wakanda Forever” siphons off a huge portion of the film’s audience, “Black Adam” is headed for a final total of around $164 million domestic and $400 million worldwide.
While “Eternals” was disappointing for the MCU, the franchise’s established popularity likely means that the future of the Eternals in later films isn’t in question. But for DC, which is counting on new CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran to chart out a new course for the division, there’s no telling exactly how these middling box office numbers will affect Dwayne Johnson’s ambitious plans for his antihero, including a teased showdown with Henry Cavill’s Superman.
The sole new release on this pre-Marvel weekend is Sony/Crunchyroll’s “One Piece Film Red,” an anime release that was expected to make the overwhelming majority of its box office gross on opening weekend. But that opening weekend haul has gotten larger for Crunchyroll with recent successes like “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” and “One Piece” is no different. The film managed a $9.4 million debut from 2,410 theaters, up from the $1.3 million that “One Piece: Stampede” made from an event release in 2019.
Universal’s “Ticket to Paradise” is third with $8.5 million in its third weekend, continuing to show respectable legs with a $46.7 million domestic total and a $137 million global total against a $60 million budget. With its appeal towards older audiences, “Ticket” may continue to avoid steep weekend drops even with “Wakanda Forever” in theaters.
Paramount’s horror film “Smile” finished in the No. 4 spot in its sixth weekend in theaters, earning $4 million to bring its domestic total to $99 million. “Smile” will join Jordan Peele’s “Nope” as the second horror film this year to top $100 million domestically, having already pass that film’s global total with $202 million worldwide. Lionsgate’s “Prey for the Devil” completes the top 5 with $3.8 million in its second weekend, giving the horror film a $13.8 million 10-day total.
