As if things weren’t tense enough at Warner Bros. Discovery with Zaslav’s goings-on and James Gunn and Peter Safran’s reinvention of the DC Universe, including cancellations, Dwayne Johnson has opened a new battlefront; and the axis of the contention is none other than ‘Black Adam’ and its presumed —and I mean presumed— profitability at the box office.
the color of money
A few days ago, Deadline —one of the most reliable American media when it comes to industry issues— published an article in which explained how the feature film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra has not generated losses to the studio estimated between 50 and 100 million dollars despite its disappointing performance in theaters, with a total collection of 389 million worldwide.
According to financial analyst and producer Joe Singer, “The film can be considered disappointing having Dwayne Johnson and being from DC. However, it would be on the break-even line and even turn a bit of a profit”. Some statements that were illustrated with a breakdown of costs and income that suggest a net profit of $52 million.
Well, almost a week later, the Puck medium points out that Warner Bros. executives not only claim that this information is false, but that Dwayne Johnson leaked misinformation on the profitability of the film. In the post, Matt Belloni claims that “virtually every movie of this size ends up turning a profit after every window sells out after years and years”.
Almost two months after its theatrical release, ‘Black Adam’ has failed to break the $400 million barrier starting from an official budget of 195 million dollars to which, according to Variety, we would have to add 80 in advertising expenses.
In his defense, Dwayne Johnson has used ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ as an example, recalling on his Twitter account that Joe Johnston’s film grossed $370 million while ruling that “with almost 400 million dollars worldwide we are building our new franchise step by step for the future of DC”. We’ll see how things end.
Via | CBR