Star power is back at the box office as Dwayne Johnson, Julia Roberts, and George Clooney returned with movies that dominated the box office domestically and internationally.
Johnson’s Black Adam scooped up $67 million, which was bigger than predicted and ended up being his strongest North American debut as a solo star. Those figures were more than enough to make The Rock’s bow in a DC superhero flick numero uno at the charts.
Box office analysts projected that Black Adam would open in the range of $60 million to $65 million.
Johnson posted on Instagram, “Thank you all so much around the world for all the amazing love and support. In the end, the only thing that matters to me is sending the people home happy. And that’s what I’ll always fight for.”
The actor was probably referring to the movie’s 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes in sharp contrast to its 39 percent Tomatometer rating based on 216 critics’ reviews. That’s a huge discrepancy between the moviegoers’ and reviewers’ verdicts on the film.
Johnson’s passion project, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, also stars Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Henry Winkler, Marwan Kenzari, and Bodhi Sabongui.
Clooney and Roberts’ Ticket to Paradise also performed more than expected – $16.34 million against predictions pegged at $12 million. That landed the movie where the couple plays bickering exes in second place and fueled talk that the romantic-comedy genre is back, thanks to the two stars.
The popular appeal and screen chemistry of the two A-listers, who have previously appeared together in Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve, are credited for the rousing success of their recent film outing.
Set in Bali but mostly filmed in Queensland, Australia, Ticket to Paradise chronicles how a divorced couple, played by Clooney and Roberts, conspire to prevent their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) from making the same mistake they think they made many years ago.
Maxime Bouttier, Billie Lourd, and Lucas Bravo also star in the film written by Daniel Pipski and Ol Parker, who also directed.
Smile, the horror movie that was originally planned to go straight to streaming, took in $8.35 million to rank third. The season’s surprise hit, made for $17 million, has raked in $84.3 million after four weeks.
Another fright offering, Halloween Ends, grabbed the fourth spot with $8 million. The latest installment of Jamie Lee Curtis’ franchise, which gave her the title, Scream Queen, amassed $54.1 million.
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile managed to stay in the top five, after scraping $4.2 million.
Making up the rest of the top ten were, in order, Viola Davis’ The Woman King, $1.9 million and a total of $62.8 million after six weeks; Terrifier 2, adding to the scary films’ rule of the charts with $1.89 million; Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, $880,000 ($44.2 million on week five); Christian Bale’s Amsterdam, $818,000 for a weak three-week cumulative of $13.9 million.
Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner in last May’s Cannes Film Festival, Triangle of Sadness, cracked the top ten with $600,000. The satire on the super-wealthy stars Thobias Thorwid, Harris Dickinson, the late Charlbi Dean, Woody Harrelson, and Dolly De Leon.
Offshore, Black Adam also reigned and collected $73 million for an impressive worldwide bow of $140 million. What looks like Dwayne Johnson’s new lucrative franchise led the action in many of the 70-plus territories where it debuted, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, France, and India.
Ticket to Paradise, launched overseas several weeks ahead of North America, is projected to earn more than $100 million globally this week.
