‘Black Adam’ Reportedly Could End Up Losing $100 Million Theatrically

Before the release of “Black Adam” back in October, Dwayne Johnson went around to anyone who would listen and said that his new DC superhero film would change “the hierarchy” of the DCEU forever. The assumption from such a bold statement is that “Black Adam” would be the debut of the next great hero. The one who will save the DCEU after years of struggles. “Black Adam” would usher in a new era of superhero storytelling. What actually happened is Dwayne Johnson released a subpar superhero story with lots of explosions and not much else. And after nearly two months, “Black Adam” was barely a ripple in the DCEU. But hey, Superman is back, y’all!

Subjective superhero film opinions aside, there is now some hard proof to show that “Black Adam” just isn’t the massive film that Johnson hoped it would be. In fact, according to a new report from Variety, “Black Adam” is nothing short of a box office bomb. 

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The new report claims that when you factor in the $195 million production cost, combined with the nearly-$100 million marketing spend, “Black Adam” is likely going to lose anywhere from $50 million to $100 million at the box office during its theatrical run. How can this be? Dwayne Johnson is box office gold, right? Well, not so much in the case of his superhero film. After seven weeks at the box office (and a premature release on VOD), “Black Adam” has only earned $387 million at the global box office. That’s well below the reported $600 million it would take for the film to break even. Luckily for “Black Adam,” the film seems to be earning a decent enough amount on VOD and should be able to come close to breaking even after everything is all said and done. Maybe.

Sure, $387 million seems like a huge amount of money. But when you put that number into a bit of context, you see that a decent box office showing isn’t worth much if your budget is astronomical. When you compare it to other superhero films, “Black Adam” just doesn’t stack up. Globally, the film has made less than “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s” domestic run. And when you compare it to the much darker, less family-friendly “The Batman,” the results aren’t much different. Matt Reeves’ reboot of the Batman mythos earned $369 million domestically and nearly $771 million worldwide. “The Batman” also has a nearly 3-hour runtime, as well. 

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And when everything is all said and done, “Black Adam” will finish well out of the Top 10 globally in 2022 (it’s already at #12 and will probably fall a couple of more spaces eventually). Not only that, the film will have earned less worldwide than “Uncharted” ($402 million) and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” ($403 million). 

All this to say, under normal circumstances, “Black Adam” would be a superhero film forgotten to time. And it’s likely DC Studios wouldn’t even consider a sequel. But this is a Dwayne Johnson movie. This is his decade-plus passion project. So, even though the film is a box office dud, it’s likely Black Adam will see more time on the big screen in the years to come. Let’s just be honest—the hierarchy of the DCEU is still firmly in place.