Black Adam Has Highest Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score of Any DC Theatrical Release Since Dark Knight Trilogy

Black Adam currently has the highest audience review score on Rotten Tomatoes for any theatrically released DC movie since The Dark Knight TrilogyDebates are raging over the function of Rotten Tomatoes scores, sparked by the gulf between Black Adam's critics and audience scores on the review aggregation site. Only 41% of critics gave Black Adam a positive review, amounting to a "rotten" aggregate score. The film's critics' consensus reads, "Black Adam may end up pointing the way to an exciting future for DC films, but as a standalone experience, it's a wildly uneven letdown." However, 90% of audience members who chose to review the film on the site reacted positively to it."  That's equal to the audience score of The Dark Knights Rises (The Dark Knight sports a 94% audience score). The only DC Extended Universe project with a higher score is Zack Snyder's Justice League, which was released on HBO Max.

There's much to be said here about the difference between critics' scores and audience scores, the former being the numerical summation of a range of critics who view film differently and write for different audiences and are often assigned films to review regardless of personal preferences, and audience scores, which are built on the self-selection of fans who both chose to see the movie and then felt strong enough to go to Rotten Tomatoes and rate it one way or the other. Both scores are built on the false "good" and "bad" binary, which does not accommodate the deeper dive into "how good?" or "how bad?"

ComicBook.com's Evan Valentine gave Black Adam3.5-out-of-5 score in his review of the film. He writes, "Is Black Adam the movie that will singlehandedly bring back the DC Cinematic Universe to stand toe to toe with what Marvel has built? No, but it's certainly laying the groundwork for this to be a possibility down the line. Black Adam is a fun, frenzied, and flawed film that answers the prayers of many while also giving viewers an action-packed thrill ride with plenty of charisma from its key players. (I would also be doing the movie a disservice if I didn't mention the amazing "pop" my screening received during the post-credit scene, which might just rival Captain America picking up Thor's hammer for the biggest reaction ever heard in a theater.) It's a roller coaster ride and, if you walk in with that mindset, you're going to have a good time."

Black Adam won the weekend box office with Dwayne Johnson's biggest opening weekend ever as a Hollywood leading man and is outperforming expectations globally. Black Adam is now playing in theaters.

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