Black Adam was a monstrous flop for DC Studios at the box office. According to Dwayne Johnson, the failure wasn’t because of the film itself, but changes in DC Studios’ leadership.
Dwayne Johnson touted Black Adam as the start of a new era for the DC Universe, saying that the “hierarchy of power” was set to change. In some ways, it did, being the first in a long line of critical and commercial flops for DC Studios. However, according to the star, the failure was largely due to the film getting caught in a “vortex of new leadership”:
“‘Black Adam’ got caught in a vortex of new leadership,” Johnson explained during an appearance on Hart to Heart. “It was so many changes in leadership. Anytime you have a company, a publicly traded company, and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who, creatively and fiscally, are going to make decisions that you may not agree with.”
“That will always be one of the biggest mysteries,” he continued. “You have the biggest opening of your career. Sure, no China, which could’ve been maybe 100 or 200 million more dollars. You have a superhero and you want to grow out the franchise. You bring back Superman and Henry Cavill, which the world went crazy. And we created a diverse superhero portfolio, where we have just men and women of color in ‘Black Adam
“It’s like new ownership coming in and buying an NFL team and going, ‘Not my coach, not my quarterback.’ It doesn’t matter how many times you won the Super Bowl or how many rings you got, you’re going with somebody else.”
Dwayne Johnson is certainly right that his film was certainly caught in an odd time for leadership at DC Studios. However, Black Adam also failed on its own merits, having a monstrously inflated budget akin to movies like Justice League or The Flash and not pulling anywhere near what it needed to in order to recoup that budget. It also likely doesn’t help matters that Dwayne Johnson allegedly went behind the backs of DC Studios leadership to put Henry Cavill in the film, likely souring any chance he had to work with James Gunn and Peter Safran once they came into the fold.
A new era for the DC Universe
James Gunn and Peter Safran are now in charge of DC’s film, television and animations efforts at Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing the company’s comic book-related assets under one roof. Gunn is said to be focusing on the creative direction of the DCU while Safran is handling things that are related to business and production.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are currently in various stages of post-production at Warner Bros. Discovery, with all four DC Universe movies slated to hit theaters in 2023. Will the characters from those movies make appearances in the new DCU? Only Gunn and Safran know.
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