Black Adam box office collection day 1: Dwayne Johnson’s DC film pales in comparison to Marvel hits, but outperforms recent Bollywood releases

The film opened in India on Thursday, and will be released in the US and in other countries on Friday. Black Adam’s opening is in line with the Rs 7 crore that The Batman made on its first day earlier this year. But it will probably fall short of the Rs 8 crore that Jurassic World Dominion made on its opening day. Dominion’s opening day haul was the biggest for a non-Marvel Hollywood release in the post-pandemic era. The numbers are expected to pick up over the weekend. The Rs 6-7 crore opening is higher than the opening day figures of some recent Bollywood films though. Ayushmann Khurrana’s Doctor G made only Rs 3.8 crore, Runway 34 made Rs 3 crore, Jersey made Rs 3.1 crore and Ek Villain Returns made Rs 6.7 crore.

By comparison, Spider-Man: No Way Home made Rs 32 crore nett on its first day of release last year. Fellow post-pandemic Marvel releases Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder made Rs 27.5 crore and Rs 18.6 crore on their first days, respectively.

In Black Adam, The Rock plays the antihero Teth Adam, who is bestowed with the powers of Shazam. But unlike that superhero, he is willing to kill to protect his people. The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and also features Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell and Pierce Brosnan.

Produced on a reported budget of $200 million (that’s four times as much as Brahmastra’s reported budget), Black Adam has attracted mixed to negative reviews from critics. The Indian Express’ Shalini Langer wrote, “Black Adam isn’t all bad though. It’s fairly entertaining, despite all the smashing and bashing; surprisingly cohesive… This instalment is clearly just a trailer into all the fighting and smashing that is yet to come. That’s an exhausting thought.”