‘Black Adam’ stays atop N.America box office

LOS ANGELES — Warner Bros.' film "Black Adam" remained atop competition for the second weekend running, hauling in a modest estimated $27.7 million in North American box office receipts, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

A feature that explores the origin story behind 2019's "Shazam," the DC Comics superhero, "Black Adam" stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a former slave bestowed with special powers.

Coming in second for the Friday-through-Sunday period was Universal's "Ticket to Paradise," a romantic comedy starring A-list stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts. The flick brought in $10 million.

Horror films, though, scored more broadly at the box office in the run-up to Halloween.

"Four of the top 10 movies this weekend are horror films," said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

"Prey for the Devil," a Lionsgate flick, was in the number three spot, pulling in $7 million.

"This is an average opening for an original horror film...Reviews are poor," Gross said.

Two other horror films, Paramount's "Smile" at fourth and Universal's "Halloween Ends" at fifth, brought in $5 million and $3.8 million respectively.

Overall, it was not a great weekend for Hollywood, with films earning an estimated $66 million, down from the $100 million from the previous weekend.

Rounding out the top 10 were "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" ($2.8 million), "Till" ($2.8 million), "Terrifier 2" ($1.8 million), "The Woman King" ($1.1 million), and "Tar" ($1 million). — Agence France-Presse