Earlier this year, the wild success of “Top Gun: Maverick” led to a lot of articles in the media hailing Tom Cruise as the last true box office star in an era of Hollywood defined by IP-centric franchises. But this weekend’s box office results showed that’s not entirely true.
Whether it was the $67 million opening of “Black Adam,” a blockbuster from one of the film industry’s most well-known comic-book franchises, or the more modest $16 million opening of Universal’s romcom “Ticket to Paradise,” moviegoer interest in seeing those films’ respective lead stars — Dwayne Johnson, George Clooney and Julia Roberts — was key to driving ticket sales.
“Black Adam” was the latest attempt by Warner Bros. to introduce one of DC’s lesser-known characters to a wider audience, something that has seen mixed results in recent years. “Shazam!” and “Aquaman” were successful in spawning sequels — with the latter using Jason Momoa’s debut in “Justice League” to turn his solo outing into a $1 billion hit — but 2020’s “Birds of Prey” disappointed as a potential franchise opener while 2021’s “The Suicide Squad” was one of the year’s biggest bombs despite spawning a hit HBO Max series in “Peacemaker.”
With Dwayne Johnson as the star of “Black Adam,” Warner Bros. hoped to draw both hardcore comic book readers familiar with the antihero as well as fans of Johnson who might not have otherwise been interested in this character. Jeff Goldstein, domestic distribution chief at Warner, believes that this bet has paid off.
Goldstein pointed to the film’s $23.7 million total on Saturday, which was actually 24% up from the film’s Friday grosses when the $7.6 million earned from Thursday previews is not included in the Friday total as it usually is. While general audiences were still the core demo for “Black Adam,” with PostTrak surveys reporting 65% of ticket buyers were male and 61% over 25, Goldstein said family turnout at matinees was higher than Warner had projected, something he attributed to Johnson’s marketing of the film to teens and parents.
“Dwayne really got out there and sold this as a movie for everyone, and I think that’s a big reason why this weekend has the first overall total over $100 million since July,” Goldstein told TheWrap. “Friday is usually driven by the hardcore DC fans, but Saturday we were getting turnout from people who were interested in ‘Black Adam’ as the latest Dwayne Johnson movie more than as the latest DC movie.”
Sure enough, PostTrak surveyed audience members on what was the main reason why they came to see “Black Adam,” with 44% saying they came because of Johnson compared to 39% saying they wanted to see the latest superhero movie. The DC franchise may have a built-in audience, but Johnson’s star power helped raise the bar.
“Ticket to Paradise,” meanwhile, has no franchise appeal… just the draw of seeing two of Hollywood’s most decorated veterans grace the screen together. This is the sixth time George Clooney and Julia Roberts have worked together on a film, the others being “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Money Monster” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Trilogy.”
As the recent failure of the gay rom-com “Bros” showed, it’s harder than ever to market a romantic comedy as a theatrical release. But there still is a section of the audience willing to buy a ticket based on Clooney and Roberts’ presence, as Universal reported that 64% of the film’s opening weekend audience was over the age of 35. “People know that these two legendary actors have incredible chemistry together, and it makes ‘Ticket to Paradise’ a film that is unique in theaters right now,” Universal’s domestic distribution head Jim Orr said.
“Black Adam” and “Ticket to Paradise” may not get anywhere near what Cruise and “Maverick” earned last summer, but Johnson, Clooney and Roberts demonstrated the sort of drawing power that used to be the bedrock of box office success during the 20th century. As a result, both films performed slightly above box office tracking and helped build the audience buzz around those actors’ fans that they will need to have continued success in the weeks to come.
With Disney/Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” coming in less than three weeks, “Black Adam” has a limited amount of time to make its millions as the sole blockbuster in theaters. Johnson’s devoted fans have embraced the film despite weak reviews from critics, but in the next two weeks we will see if those fans’ word-of-mouth can keep the film’s momentum going and allow it to pick up interest from casual moviegoers.
Meanwhile, “Ticket to Paradise” will look to revive an old moviegoing trend from the pre-COVID days: steady turnout from older moviegoers in the later weeks of a theatrical run. Most if not all the films that have aimed at the over-45 crowd since theaters reopened haven’t much in the way of sustained momentum. Focus’ Features “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” for example, saw a 63% drop in its second weekend after opening last May to a similar $16 million.
Granted, “Downton Abbey” has an audience mostly limited to fans of the PBS show on which it’s based, but with the specialty box office still slowly rebuilding and Warner Bros.’ “Elvis” currently standing as the only major box office hit since reopening to draw a primarily older audience, it’s still unclear how well films running as counterprogramming to youth-skewing tentpoles can perform at the box office.
“Paradise” is set to turn a profit, with $96 million grossed worldwide so far against a $60 million budget, but if it can leg out to a domestic run of more than $50 million — more than three times its opening weekend total — then it is clear that more mature audiences are beginning to seek out films in theaters that have genres and stars that appeal to them, something that they weren’t doing last year amidst fears of COVID-19.
