From the moment it was announced, Black Adam was supposed to revolutionize the DCEU (now DCU). It was marketed as the Superhero film that the hour needs. Something that we had to see. The movie in my opinion had taken all the right calls, especially cast Dwayne Johnson as the titular character. Given the year that we’ve had where every superhero film has disappointed us except for The Batman, I was really looking forward to this film as I genuinely wanted to be enthralled by a superhero film, like I did when I was 16. I feel sad to say, Black Adam is not that film. It is not a revolution that the DCEU needs. Its quiet simply a film that is self aware and invests heavily in action sequences and doesn’t pay heed to its screenplay which is one of the weakest of the year.
The most disappointing part of the film was Dwayne Johnson himself as I’ve not seen a more one dimensional performance from him before. The film until now has been very successful and I have no reason to think it won’t be going forward. Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate was the absolute highlight of the film followed by Henry Cavill as Superman. Despite having so much riding on it, after only 31 days after its theatrical release, the film has been released on Digital. The reason for the same is mentioned to be the poor box office performance of the DCU flick. However, is it really that bad? Reports claim that Warner Bros. Discovery maybe facing a loss because of Black Adam!
Black Adam Losing a lot of Money?
Black Adam started its box office run very well to the point where the producers of the film were talking about a potential sequel and how work will be completed for the sequel very quickly. The movie had launched with $143 Million opening worldwide ($76 Million domestic). These are terrific numbers considering the state of theatrical releases. However, it seems like after opening weekend, the audience has not been kind to the DCU flick as it faced steep drops in the next weeks.
The situation got worse with the release of Marvel’s much awaited Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The MCU movie is roaring at the box office and has no real competition until Avatar: The Way of Water releases. Wakanda Forever has collected $732 Million worldwide and in comparison Black Adam which released 3 weeks before the MCU movie has grossed only $387 Million worldwide. These numbers are not good. Black Adam’s budget was humungous, reportedly $200 Million.
If we compare this then without getting into the nitty gritty of producing and distribution of a film, Black Adam is losing money right here. Basically whatever the film’s earnings are half of it or more is taken by the theatre owner. To simplify it, when you by a 100 rs. ticket for a movie 50 rs. is taken by the producer and 50 rs. goes to the theatre person. This is the basic deal, it can get much more complicated than this and it all depends on the negotiation between the distributor/producer and the exhibitor (theatre owner).
But if we apply this basic principle to Black Adam with experts saying that the movie will run out of fuel at the $400 Million mark then this means that the movie is losing money right there. You might say it breaks even but you’ll be wrong. Remember the money spent on a movie gets returned after a certain amount of time. Black Adam had started way back and it faced a lot of delays so the budget of $200 Million which was spent many years back is now inflated is at least $225 Million.
This means the movie is losing money right there. Also, did I mention that this is just the production budget? Yes, when you add the marketing costs which are reportedly around $100 Million it is said that the movie had to make $600 Million at least to break even for the producers and the studio. Well, that is not happening so in conclusion Black Adam is losing at least $50-100 Million which makes it a huge loss for the studio. Considering that it was supposed to be the start of the new era of DC this is not great.
In comparison, DC’s Batman did very well on the box office as it collected $770 Million on a budget of $200 Million. The OTT rights of the film are also not sold to Netflix or something, it will be released on HBO Max making it further difficult to recover the money.
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 in currently unknown roles.
Black Adam is currently playing in theatres near you and available for purchase on Digital.
If you have any questions regarding DCEU’s Black Adam, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
