New reports state that Black Adam will make a profit for Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios. The box office run for DC's latest live-action movie starring Dwayne Johnson has been highly scrutinized in the weeks since its release. Black Adam is slowly crawling to $400 million worldwide after a strong opening, leading to growing questions about if the film was truly a success. This led to reports that Black Adam was poised to lose around $100 million for the studios, which is hardly what many had in mind for a DC superhero movie starring The Rock.

It is now being reported by Deadline that the notion that Black Adam will lose money for the studios is false. According to financial sources close to the outlet, Black Adam is expected to turn a profit. The outlet notes that Dwayne Johnson's DC movie is expected to make between $52-$72M for the studios. This is possible due to lower P&L costs than anticipated, as well as no one taking a cut of the first dollar gross - including Dwayne Johnson. He, director Jaume Collet-Serra, and others are set to get a split of Black Adam's profits instead. The article also notes the movie has made over $100M in home entertainment sales.


Black Adam's Box Office Is Still Disappointing


The change in Black Adam's profitability coverage is good for the film and the franchise's future. However, there is still no getting around that Black Adam's box office is disappointing. The movie would have benefited from playing in Russia and China, which did not happen for various political reasons, but a small profit on a DC movie starring Dwayne Johnson is not what anyone involved expected. As the movie currently stands, the only non-COVID-era DC movie it beat at the box office is Shazam!, which starred a more obscure character and a lesser-known star in Zachary Levi.

Dwayne Johnson is known across Hollywood as being an actor who can launch franchises and drive audiences in mass to theaters. He did so with Fast & Furious and Jumanji, while he also has a few other successful box office stories. Black Adam turning a profit might technically make the film a win in the accounting books, but the fact that Black Adam's box office compared to other DC movies is substantially less is disappointing. Black Adam as a character might not be someone that audiences around the world already knew, but that is why Dwayne Johnson was supposed to be the film's big draw.

Black Adam's box office totals also should have received a boost thanks to its DCU connections. The appearance of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) was confirmed in the marketing, while Henry Cavill's Superman return was officially revealed after the movie's opening weekend. Black Adam's reviews and the competition that came with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever certainly helped limit the film's legs. Knowing that Black Adam will likely turn a profit makes it all a bit more excusable.