Black Adam Pulls A Hat Trick At The Box Office, One Piece Film: Red Brings Out The Anime Crowd

It was one of those relative "calm-before-the-storm" weekends at the box office, with many in the industry awaiting the arrival of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" this week, which will undoubtedly put a great deal of meat in seats. This past weekend, however, "Black Adam" got to enjoy one more (albeit modest) stay atop the charts, while "One Piece Film: Red" once again proved that anime is increasingly viable in the U.S. Meanwhile, horror movies crossed milestones, and Oscar hopefuls continued to disappoint. Let's dig into the numbers, shall we?

In its third weekend, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's "Black Adam" earned another $18.5 million, per Box Office Mojo. That represents a mere 32.6% decline from the prior weekend, which is good. Though that had far more to do with an utter lack of direct competition. "Black Panther" will smother the competition this upcoming weekend and the latest DC Comics adaptation will probably see a hefty decline. But any movie that gets to enjoy three weekends topping the charts in a row should be considered lucky and, more than that, probably a success. But success is relative.

"Black Adam" has a reported $190 million production budget. It has, to date, taken in a few nickels shy of $320 million globally. With a price tag like that, Warner Bros. almost certainly was looking for a finish closer to $500 million – if not more. And yet, here we are. I don't envy DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran in trying to figure out what to do with Black Adam next.

Much like "Dragon Slayer" and "Jujutsu Kaisen" before it, "One Piece Film: Red" entered theaters this weekend looking to capitalize on a lack of competition. Crunchyroll scored again as the film took the number two spot with $9.47 million. While it's sure to fall off a cliff next weekend, this is essentially finding money where it didn't previously exist, as anime is only recently proving to be a small gold mine in North America. Anything that can get moviegoers out that isn't horror or superheroes is good. And this movie has already made $132 million internationally, so anything it makes in the U.S. is icing on the cake, to some degree.

"Ticket to Paradise" continued to prove that star-driven rom-coms can work, coming in at number three with $8.5 million. It has now taken in $137.2 million worldwide against a $60 million budget. It should triple its budget before going to VOD. Other adult-friendly fare such as "Till" ($1.87 million), "The Banshees of Inisherin" ($2 million), "Tar" ($670,000), and "Triangle of Sadness" ($410,000) continued to show that it's going to be uphill sledding for Oscar hopefuls again this year, financially speaking. Not great.

Lastly, a couple of big horror movies crossed big milestones, with "Smile" now sitting at $202.9 million, against a mere $17 million budget. Expect a sequel. "Halloween Ends," meanwhile, has passed $102.9 million, despite big drop-offs and its Peacock streaming release. Horror works, people. You can check out the full list of the top ten for yourself below.

Top ten movies at the box office November 4-6, 2022.

1. "Black Adam" – $18.5 million

2. "One Piece Film: Red" – $9.47 million

3. "Ticket to Paradise" – $8.5 million

4. "Smile" – $4 million

5. "Prey for the Devil" – $3.87 million

6. "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" – $3.36 million

7. "The Banshees of Inisherin" – $2 million

8. "Till" – $1.87 million

9. "Halloween Ends" – $1.4 million

10. "Terrifier 2" – $1.2 million