There is no shortage of flops coming from the DC franchise ever since the pandemic era onward, but one of those notoriously underwhelming films is seeing a strong presence in the world of streaming.
The last three DC movies alone — Blue Beetle, The Flash, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods — has made a bad situation even worse for Warner Bros. since none of the 2023 movies have enticed audiences en masse to the theater so far. But even before 2023 proved to be a whimper of a swan song for the now-defunct DC Extended Universe, another movie seemingly set the stage for the lack of box office receipts to come.
Despite the considerable star power and marketing acumen of producer and lead actor Dwayne Johnson, 2022’s Black Adam proved to have the same impact on the box office as a wet paper bag. Indeed, despite a $200 million budget thrown at a super antihero who could hardly be considered a household name, the film fell short of $400 million at the box office, making it a financial disappointment for WB. This all came amid a hype train that went completely off the rails from Johnson, who went from declaring the movie to be a hierarchy-destroying game-changer to hailing it as the triumphant return of Henry Cavill’s Superman, complete with a post-credit scene, which both turned out to be nothing more than empty promises.
Despite the unmitigated disaster that was Black Adam‘s rollout to theaters, the film is gaining a more impressive reputation as time goes on. Now that the string of flops for DC’s 2023 slate has come and gone, Black Adam is emerging as the brand’s biggest hit in five years, funnily enough. And it turns out, the movie’s presence on streaming is quite triumphant, as well.
You see, despite Black Adam costing WB millions from the box office shortfall, the film has nevertheless dominated on Max. So far in 2023, Black Adam is actually the #1 film on Max’s streaming charts, according to FlixPatrol.