Dwayne Johnson has thanked fans for Black Adam's high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, saying that he cares more about whether fans enjoyed the film than what critics think.
Johnson took to Twitter to express his excitement over Black Adam's success amongst viewers. "A huge THANK YOU to the fans for our amazing 90% audience score for Black Adam" he tweeted. "Highest audience score for a DC theatrical film since [The Dark Knight.] As always, the fans matter most and we’re always committed to deliver for them. So make sure you stay til the end credits." In a different tweet, he added that "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."
Black Adam currently has a 40% Tomatometer score, from 220 reviews, indicating a largely negative critical response, and a 90% audience score from 2500+ reviews. The Dark Knight has a matching 94% score on both the Tomatometer, from 345 critical reviews, and the audience score, from more than 250,000. The other movies in Christopher Nolan’s widely praised Dark Knight Trilogy are also high scorers with both critics and fans. Batman Begins has a critical score of 84% and also boasts an audience score of 94%. The Dark Knight Rises is certified fresh at 87% with an audience score of 90%, equaling Black Adam.
Pleasing fans isn't Black Adam's only achievement, as the movie also surpassed expectations at the box office to make $67 million domestically and $140 million worldwide. Johnson's DC Extended Universe debut ended up surpassing Shazam!, which made $53.5 million domestically in its opening weekend in 2019. Black Adam has long been a rival for Shazam in the comics too, but Johnson was reportedly a driving force behind giving the two characters separate origin movies. He definitely expects them to face off in the future, however. "Build them up, and then they can do this," he said. Shazam! Fury of the Gods will premiere in March 2023 and is not expected to feature Black Adam.
Black Adam's big opening night box office success, with $7.6 million in just Thursday night previews, was also close to a career high for Johnson, surpassing all but Furious 7 ($15.8M) and Fate of the Furious ($10.4M). While the movie didn't quite reach the $68.1 million it would have needed to claim the title, it beat out many of his most successful projects to date, including Johnson's previous biggest opening as a lead actor, San Andreas.
Black Adam is currently in theaters.
Source: Twitter, via Variety