Black Adam Challenges the ‘Hierarchy of Power’ With a $140 Million Global Weekend Box Office Victory

While it remains to be seen what his true impact on the DCEU will be, Dwayne Johnson has, as he has been saying for a long time now, challenged the “hierarchy of power” at the movies with Black Adam and its strong $140 million global weekend box office victory.

As reported by Box Office Mojo, Black Adam earned $67 million at the domestic box office and another $73 million overseas for a total of $140 million. This was enough to pass Shazam!’s $53.5 million opening and fall right beside Aquaman’s $67.8 million.

Black Adam cost $195 million to produce before marketing, so it still has a bit of a way to go to recoup its costs. One milestone it has accomplished, however, is becoming Johnson’s best opening aside from The Mummy Returns’ $68.1 million and various Fast & Furious films. As a leading star in a film, this is the best opening he’s had.

In our Black Adam review, we said that it “overindulges to the point where it’s hard to enjoy the DC anti-hero’s debut. It’s packed with undeveloped characters and an excessive number of repetitive action scenes, to the point where its half-baked debate on what it means to be a hero is lost in all the noise.”

Ticket to Paradise, the weekend’s other new film, took second place with a global opening of $96.6 million. The film starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney brought in $16.3 million domestically and $80.2 million internationally.

Smile took third place with $8.3 million and was followed by Halloween Ends’ $8 million and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’s $4.2 million.

For more on Black Adam, check out our explainer of the ending, what that cameo means for the DCEU, and our deep dive into the history of Sabbac.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.