SHAZAM!

Remember when Dwayne Johnson announced “The hierarchy of power in the DC UNIVERSE has changed” back in August? Well it turns out his prescience wasn’t just hyperbole. Black Adam has now ruled the weekend box office for a third week in a row with $18.5M giving bringing its domestic haul to  $137.4M.

RELATED: Dwayne Johson Sees Warner Bros. Future in DC Comic’s Lesser Known Heroes

Marvel Studio’s Wakanda Forever which opens Friday is expected to knock Adam off its perch.

Deadline:

Before Disney/Marvel’s Wakanda Forever comes in and does $175M-$200M next weekend, providing a complete rebirth to the domestic box office, don’t knock New Line’s Black Adam this weekend which had a fantastic hold of -33% for a third weekend of $18.5M. Total running domestic cume stands at $137.4M.

Some rivals have snarked to me about the big cost for this movie at $200M before P&A, that Black Adam won’t profit like Johnson’s Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw which had the benefit of $200M out of China (again, Uni only got a 25% rental there), and a better exchange rate, that film doing $759M WW and yielding an $84M net profit after all ancillaries. Black Adam will be lucky to top out at $400M WW, again Warners couldn’t have seen that strong dollar coming abroad. Two quick thoughts, in some ways we’re still a marketplace in rebuild, and you could argue this was a pricey pic to start a deep universe DC franchise (alas, it is a Rock movie and that’s the same production pricetag for Hobbs & Shaw).

However, stateside, we can’t throw shade on Black Adam. This movie is the biggest thing in the market right now, spurring concession sales for exhibition over the last three weekends. It came out of the gate as. Black Adam‘s third weekend boasts a better hold and box office in its third weekend than Hobbs & Shaw (-44%, $14.1M). The pic’s running total is pacing 3% ahead of Hobbs & Shaw at the same point in time. Black Adam even had a better third weekend than San Andreas ($10.8M, -58%) and is also ahead of that film’s running U.S/Canada total $119.1M.

Adam and Johnson have certainly turned things around at Warner Bros./DC Studios, where executives just earlier this year were spinning their wheels seemingly unable to shake the sense that they’d always be second stringers next to archrival Marvel. Looks like that old wizard’s magic word still works.

The movie has also generated excitement and for many, introduced for the first time, DC’s original and comics’ first superhero team (and predecessor to the Justice League): the Justice Society of America.

The Justice Society first appeared in All-Star Comics # 3 in 1940.

The character of Black Adam first appeared in Fawcett Comics’ The Marvel Family #1 in December 1945. Alternately referred to as the Mighty Adam he was the character we now refer to as Shazam!, Captain Marvel’s, chief arch enemy.

Teth-Adam or Tethon is a complicated anti-hero rather than a traditional villain and invokes the same magic word that Billy Batson uses to become a superhero albeit the acronym represents different heroes.

So while: Solomon (wisdom), Hercules (strength), Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage), and Mercury (speed) give Batson/Captain Marvel/Shazam (above) his powers, the Mighty Adam’s powers come from Egyptian gods: the stamina of Shu, the swiftness of Heru (Horus), the strength of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti (Thoth), the power of Aton, and the courage of Mehen.

Adam got a significant post release buzz/bump after it was revealed that Henry Cavill has returned to play Superman in a post credit scene cameo.

“I wanted to wait the weekend before posting this,” Cavill says in the video he posted to social https://t.co/FGCbWE3DTK

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) October 24, 2022

The scene starts out with Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller (who’s been pulling the strings behind the Suicide Squad in not one, but two movies) sending over a drone to talk with Black Adam. Waller isn’t too happy with Black Adam after he escaped from her underwater prison — which was run by “Peacemaker” character Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) in a fun cameo.

Waller tells Black Adam that he has her attention, and she’ll let him go free as long as he doesn’t step foot outside his home country, Kahndaq. Black Adam smirks, saying, “There’s nobody on this planet who can stop me,” which prompts Waller reply that there’s someone not from this world who can help her. Then we hear the famous John Williams’ theme to 1978’s Superman the Motion Picture that morphs into Man of Steel’s Han Zimmer score.

Sure enough, Superman, the last son of Krypton, crashes down from above in a cloud of dust. As the Man of Steel emerges from the smoke, he tells Black Adam:

“It’s been a while since someone’s made the world this nervous. We should talk.”

Cut to black.

Black Adam is in theaters everywhere.