Dwayne Johnson Still Doesn't Understand Way BLACK ADAM Was Dropped; Says It's "One of the Biggest Mysteries"
Dwayne Johnson still can’t quite wrap his head around what happened with Black Adam and why Warner Bros. and DC dropped it after the film was released. The actor appeared on a new episode of Kevin Hart’s “Hart to Hart” talk show on Peacock, which was recorded prior to the strike, and he looked back on the film and expressed his confusion as to why the movie isn’t going to get a sequel.
First of all, Black Adam simply wasn’t a good movie. I recently attempted to give it another chance and watch it a second time and it just had a poorly written script and an uninteresting story that was frankly boring. DC fans didn’t seem too excited about it and the movie is said to have lost around $100 million, so that’s not good. But, Johnson still thinks it’s a mystery why the movie got dropped, and he said:
“That will always be one of the biggest mysteries. 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.'”
Johnson went on to say that the Black Adam franchise got “caught in the web of new leadership,” and explained:
“Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership. 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.”
Here’s the thing, if the movie would have actually been good and was a real hit at the box office, it probably wouldn’t have been dropped. But, the movie didn’t even break the $400 million mark at the box office. After the big budget and all the marketing costs, the movie lost money. It’s really not surprising to me that the studios didn’t want to move forward with the franchise, but some people just don’t want to admit defeat, and I totally understand that!
Johnson compared Black Adam being dropped to a “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.”
In the end, the movie was a mediocre film that wasn’t a runaway hit at the box office. Oh, and then there’s the fact that Johnson ruffled some feathers at Warner Bros. when trying to pitch his multi-year plan that would’ve led to a Black Adam and Superman faceoff.
Johnson did meet with James Gunn and Peter Safran about the franchise and while Black Adam will not be a part of the first phase of DC’s new film plans, he did say that “DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters.”
I seriously doubt we’ll see Johnson’s Black Adam again. It will be a big surprise if we do.
Via: Variety