Black Adam is the latest DC movie which was supposed to reinvent superhero movies forever but what it did was only prove why the genre has reached its breaking point. Dwayne Johnson had hyped the film too much where the movie definitely didn’t have anything substantial. The film already had a hefty budget considering the talent involved however, the reshoots weighed down the movie even further as the final budget of the film is rumored to be somewhere around $240-60 Million. Furthermore to Warner Bros. dismay after the after its first week instantly lost its audience. The film had a $140 Million opening weekend but its lifetime theatrical run ended at $391 Million. Black Adam was available on Digital just after 31 days of its theatrical release.
The film is reported to a financial failure with Warner Bros. Discovery bearing a loss of $50-100 Million as the budget mentioned above doesn’t include the insane marketing budgets that today’s films have. Moreover, just after Black Adam’s release there was a leadership change at DC which resulted in a reboot of sorts that made the future of Black Adam look bleak. Just a month back, Dwayne Johnson announced that he is exiting DC at least for now as there is no space for Black Adam in the current slate of the newly formed DCU. However, apart from DC Dwayne Johnson is involved with Warner Bros. Discovery on other projects as well but after the Black Adam debacle the relations between the WWE legend and the studio has been extremely tensed.
Black Adam: Dwayne Johnson Is Making Too Many Demands!
As if the Black Adam debacle wasn’t enough, Dwayne Johnson and Warner Bros. relations have been getting worse due to various reasons. Let’s look at some of them as per revealed by Variety’s latest report. Dwayne Johnson went out of his way ti bring back Henry Cavill as Superman and after accomplishing an almost impossible task, James Gunn and Peter Safran- the new heads of DC replaced Cavill as he didn’t fit in their vision of Superman. Johnson had met WBD CEO David Zaslav to greenlit a multiyear plan for DC that focused on himself and Cavill.
This didn’t sit well with a lot of execs at Warner Bros. Discovery as he went around everyone. Moreover, the actor was also the star of DC League of Super-Pets where he voiced Krypto, Superman’s dog who was the lead of the film. However, in that project as well Dwayne Johnson was demanding a Producer credit despite not contributing enough to earn that title. The actor reportedly didn’t even promote the film enough. Another odd request from Johnson came at the New York Premiere of Black Adam where the actor wanted a bar for is tequila brand Teremana.
An industry insider told Variety, “His demands increased and the returns just weren’t there.” Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the trade, “You can’t have a more modest budget when this level of talent is involved. Budgets are commensurate with the talent involved. Something with a lower budget like Shazam! is dubbed a hit, because ‘hits’ are based more on profitability.” Considering all this it is safe to say that the relations between Warner Bros. Discovery and Dwayne Johnson can be better.
Black Adam is helmed by Jungle Cruise’s Jaume Collett-Serra, and will star Dwayne the Rock Johnson in the lead role of Black Adam. The supporting cast includes Aldis Hodge (The Invisible Man, Underground) as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell (Trinkets, Euphoria) as Cyclone, Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I Love Before, Charlie’s Angels) as Atom Smasher, and Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, Mamma Mia!) as Doctor Fate, with Uli Latukefu, Marwan Kenzari, Mohammed Amer, James Cusati-Moyer, and Bodhi Sabongui have also been cast.
Black Adam is currently available for purchase on Digital.
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