Now that the dust is finally beginning to settle, things are not looking good for Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson’s heavily-hyped introduction to the DCU was supposed to change the hierarchy of power as we were repeatedly told, but it looks as if the opposite has turned out to be true.
Having failed to clear $400 million at the global box office on estimated production costs of $200 million plus the additional marketing and distribution expenses, the 15 years in the making comic book adaptation is potentially on track to lose anywhere between $50 million and $100 million by the time it leaves theaters.
Black Adam may have been roundly dismissed by critics, but its Rotten Tomatoes user rating of 89 percent shows that audiences had a great time watching The Rock kick plenty of superpowered ass. And yet, nowhere near enough of them ended up paying for a ticket, and it didn’t take long for the failure-in-waiting to be torn to shreds by the Twitterati.
On the plus side, Black Adam did introduce a major new figure to the DCU mythology that’s going to come in mighty handy moving forward, while there’s also plenty of potential for the Justice Society to make an impact across film and potentially even streaming, as well as the internet-breaking return of Henry Cavill’s Superman.
Whether any of the above end up getting more screentime in a standalone sequel remains up for debate looking at the financial disaster lurking on the horizon, but we’d be very surprised if James Gunn and Peter Safran simply gave up on Black Adam outright.