1 day DC will learn to stop it with these bloated budget films that can’t make a profit 5 mil less than the last Dr Strange movie to make, but what Strange made in 2 weeks at the box office doubles what Black Adam has made in 4
Total gross is currently at $390 mil (link). It's likely plateau at this point since it was released in late Oct and most screenings will go to Avatar 2 and other new releases. Quick budget break down. ---- Movie production cost $195 mil Advertising budget: $80 mil. (it's estimated between 80-100 but let's take the lower one) Total cost: $275mil. Revenue is split 50/50 between studio and theatre. note1: Normal box office accounting: 50/50 is used... although internationally, China sometimes gets a more favorable split. It's allowed since they can do volume. I forgot the exact number... it used to be China had 2nd most theatre screens, after the U.S., but they may be #1 now. note2: Black Adam is not going to be released in China, despite Rock being popular there. Since movie is about overthrowing a regime, plus zero covid policy, this movie will have to do without China. $390 / 2 = $195 (goes to WB after splitting with theaters). Final: $275 (cost) - $195 (revenue) = $80 mil (deficit) So they lost money.. at least $80mil. Not the worst, but definitely not good. note 3: After markets (streaming/blu ray) are normally not counted.--- I peg Black Adam at tier C, most comic heads at least know the character. He's certainly not recognizable as the Joker, so introducing a villain/anti-hero to the public was a huge gamble. As far as popularity, Adam is more well know than D-list Shang-chi or the Eternals, but those characters had the Marvel backing. Rock was not a bad casting, he's OK as Black Adam. The issue is WB also made Dwayne Johnson, a producer, which really skew how the character is promoted. Speaking for myself, I was more happy to see Dr. Fate and Hawkman realized on the big screen the first time. A JLA picture could have been nice. And no, Dr Fate is not a rip off of Dr Strange. One first appeared in 1943, the other was 1963. DC has meta (superman), tech (batman). magic. Fate is in the magic.
Man, rock thought he could turn a D list character into Superman/Batman tier. He should have just made the damn movie with Shazam that might have been goated. He fumbled it and brought everyone down with him.
I don't know that the Rock fumbled anything. He made like $22MM doing the movie. It's the studios fault for thinking they could make Shazam's villain it's own franchise. Probably their biggest miss was not pandering to China enough to get in their theaters.
Money to the rock doesn't mean much, he wanted "the rock" brand to remain strong. The rock is the one who told WB he could make Black Adam an A tier character and he couldn't - brought Henry Cavil down with him and made Gunn reboot the whole thing. Rock def fumbled it.
not sure Dwyane should be getting as much blame as he is…he miscalculated big time, but the entire DCEU had been 1 big miscalculation from the jump
True, but the director def neither had guts nor vision to do something different from Fate than what we've already seen from Strange on screen. They ripped off so many popular tropes from other movies that you wonder if any of the staff had joy putting this on film over going through a formulaic checklist.
There were Visual effects that was similar. Things like Fate clones and others they been used in other mediums before both movies, but the ones to show it on the big screen, staked its claim. Like many things, it was a speed to market, as soon as DC announced stuff, Marvel even if was later try to put their stuff out to the public first. There's a long history list. For example, BvS was first announced, and threatre date was first set. Marvel then moves their Civil War to the same weekend date. The hero v hero wasn't seen on the big screen at the time, DC/Snyder also doing one of their popular 80's Frank Miller run wasn't an unexpected idea. Moving your similar movie after another studio already announced their date was considered bad form. Same genre on the same opening weekend eats into each other's profits from same audience base. They played chicken and WB blinked. Did Marvel win that round, yes. But at the time as someone who supported both studios, I didn't like the tactic. Instead of a tide that raise all ships approach, where comic book movies was making everybody money (Marvel, WB, Fox, Sony). Feige was very cut throat in making sure his stuff was seen first. Yes Civil War ended up being more well received, but I wasn't a fan take no prisoners approach. Multiverse is not a DC only thing, but elseworld was something DC had leaned into heavily for a long time; comics, video games and animates movies. DC literally had numberes their multiverse world. Earth prime, earth 2, the bizzarro opposite earth, the villain version of JL... 52's.. Infinite earths. It's literally the architecture of their comics universe. Sony Spiderman multiverse and Dr Strange sequel beat DC to the punch in popularizing multiverse in public's recent consciousness. This not to say DC still can't do multiverse, but to the public, the idea is less fresh and to to others (not you specifically) it even looked like DC copied.
Feige had a long distaste for magic in the MCU. They style they do is much more muted than something pure fantasy. Shazaam, Black Adam or Fate would've been an interesting risk for DC to do earlier with their own take on magic. Instead, we saw the same ol ****.
Not sure how long both movies were in production, but I believed they overlapped. By the time Strange was released, Adams might have been already in production. Who knows they may even contracted the same VFX studios. Stuff is borrowed all the time, how many Marvel characters do the 'Superman landing' Feige planning the magic part is fine. My earlier long winded comment about elseworld... was that Infinite earths was DC's storyline in the 80's. New 52, was early 2010, all of it before Feige's Marvel magic planning. It was somwhat of DC's comics identity. I feel bad DC wasn't able to tell some of their core story. The blame can only go so far, WB stumbles, before long, a competitor comes in and does your concept faster and better.
It's available to stream on HBO Max now. Will I actually watch it? Unclear. Will keep everyone posted.
They had the template from that animated movie Superman/Shazam The Return of Black Adam but listened to Dwayne and wrecked the entire thing.
