After 15 years in development, Black Adam is finally unleashed upon theaters all over the world today, and the response to Dwayne Johnson’s long-gestating DCEU debut has been pretty much exactly what we’ve come to expect from the opinion-splitting franchise.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the Man in Black’s maiden outing has been slipping slowly downwards to sit on a current 44 percent rating, but the target audience have already given it their seal of approval by doubling that score and then some to a hefty 89 percent. Johnson said he was making the movie for the fans, and he wasn’t lying.
However, the proof will be in the box office pudding, with the leading man and producer already having ambitious plans in store to rebuild the flagging DCEU in his own image. The producorial team sound exceedingly confident, though, with Hiram Garcia admitting to ComicBook that a rapid return to the big screen is on the cards.
“It’s not going to take that long. I can promise you that. We always hope the first domino’s the easy one. We’ll get cooking on it fast, that’s for sure.”
Regular behind the scenes Johnson collaborator Beau Flynn went one step further, confidently stating that work on Black Adam 2 is already tentatively underway, and that it’s coming quick.
“Don’t worry. This one will be fast. We will open up the magic wagon, we’ll have the script ready, pretty fast.”
Those are fighting words, although the only remaining question is how high Black Adam can fly at the box office. At the very least, the biggest star in Hollywood headlining a blockbuster comic book adaptation set in a multi-billion dollar property should be aiming for $500 million in ticket sales, so we’ll be curious see if the titular antihero can fly even higher.