8 reasons why Black Adam failed at the box office

Black Adam was 15 years in the making because Dwayne Johnson’s casting as this superpowered antihero happened all the way back in 2007. Yet, the movie couldn’t amount to anything special at the box office. While The Rock tried hard to push Black Adam to the forefront, the film did not provide the kind of returns that he or the studio would have liked.

A huge chunk of the film’s budget also went into the VFX to produce some amazing shots and visually stunning battles. Apart from that, there were no major takeaways from the film. Despite what The Rock claimed, Black Adam proved to be a box office failure, and there are many reasons why the film failed.

Poorly written script, unfamiliar character, and 6 other reasons why Black Adam failed at the box office

Lack of originality

Black Adam's cool explosion walk (Image via DC)

As the film began screening worldwide, fans and critics realized that there were hardly any new elements added to Black Adam. However, there were so many instances in the movie that were almost identical to other superhero movies. It seemed as if Dwayne Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Cerra sat in a room together and cherry-picked certain scenes and elements from past superhero movies.

Black Adam did everything that has been done in the past, and the only new factor added to those is Dwayne Johnson himself. The film could be summarized as “Old News ft. The Rock!” The dynamic between Teth Adam and Amon was exactly like the Terminator and John Connor in Judgement Day, with a huge focus being placed on catchphrases.

Black Adam, Quicksilver, and the Flash (Image via Sportskeeda)

Black Adam included a slow-mo scene after Quicksilver did it twice, Superman and the Flash did it in Justice League, and even Marvel's Logan did it in an interesting way. Besides that, plot elements such as Eternium and Kahndaq felt similar to Vibranium and Wakanda. Eternium, on the other hand, served the same purpose as Kryptonite.

Adam’s personality seemed a lot like Drax, and he used moves like Hulk’s trademark thunderclap. It got to a point where the audience could pick out a similarity between Black Adam and a past superhero movie with everything that Adam did or said.

Poorly written script

Along with a heavy resemblance to previously done superhero movies, Black Adam suffered from a poorly written script. Viewers were told that the Wizards hid the crown of Sabbac, but where did we find it? While it was casually floating above two rocks in a cave, Adrianna faced no problems in grabbing it.

On top of that, the movie had a lot of video-game-level dialogs, especially when it came to Sabbac, such as “Heroes don't kill people,” “My powers are not a gift, but a curse,” “I kneel before no one,” “Fate does not make mistakes,” among others.

All these dialogs echo the same sentiment as a highly dramatized fantasy-adventure plot like that of The Lord of the Rings. Essentially, it was perceived that The Rock spent a lot of time, money, and effort on looking like Black Adam and making the VFX look good. Had the production been invested into writing the film's script, perhaps the movie could have performed better at the box office.

A passive protagonist

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam (Image via DC)

An extension of the film’s writing issue was that the fans never got a protagonist that became the driving force of the film. Black Adam would not have woken up if Adrianna didn’t know about him, and even after waking up, he was just there floating around, wanting to do nothing at all.

Following this, the JSA were introduced to bring in the conflict in the plot. Ishmael then kidnapped Amon to make Black Adam fight a few more bad guys. Later, if it wasn’t for Doctor Fate’s magical call, then he would have been stuck in Amanda Waller’s underwater prison. And then, and then, and then…

Evidently, the film had a clear case of the plot pushing Black Adam forward and making him react to situations instead of the other way around. As a result, one of the most powerful “heroes” in the DC Universe became one of the weakest heroes ever.

The Rock with powers

It is commendable how much work Dwayne Johnson had put into gaining his Black Adam physique. However, many would agree that the character the audience got after that was still The Rock with superpowers, and we’ve already seen that multiple times up to an extent in films like Jumanji and Jungle Cruise.

Instead of turning Black Adam into a version of himself, it would have been nice if The Rock had gone the extra mile to turn himself into the superhero with the comic-accurate pointy ears, an angrier persona, and everything. Since Dwayne Johnson was one of the producers of Black Adam, nobody could give him the tough love about the way he approached the role.

The pandemic and market dynamics

Black Adam failed big time because it came out at a time when potential blockbusters haven't also been doing well. The box office is still suffering from the effects of the pandemic as many people have grown habitual to watching films on their big-screen TVs, phones, or PCs and laptops in the comfort of their homes.

Streaming has played a massive role with movies releasing on digital HD and OTT platforms much sooner than they used to. Hence, many people aren’t willing to go to the theatres when they get to watch it at almost no extra cost within a couple of months. As a result, Black Adam also hit digital within a month and the streaming platforms in less than two months.

A massive budget to recover

Black Adam's massive budget (Image via DC)

Black Adam made $391 million worldwide out of a $195 million production budget, which according to the latest reports, ballooned up to $260 million. After which, $100 million was spent on its marketing, making a total expenditure rise up to $360 million. For a movie to recover this amount of money, it has to go beyond $800 million to turn in any kind of profit.

Moreover, in these troublesome times, if a film doesn’t amaze fans and critics alike with something new and unique, there’s a major chance that it will lose a lot of money.

Unfamiliar characters

As is usually known, comic readers must be familiar with Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone, as these JSA members are all related to Adam in the books. However, for regular moviegoers, the characters are all unfamiliar characters. The one familiar character that could have been included was Shazam, but the film avoided his presence.

Additionally, the JSA members felt like knockoffs of superheroes viewers have seen in the past. In terms of leadership, Carter Hall is a generic and conventional leader of any superhero team, reminding fans of someone like Cyclops. He is also a rich billionaire that’s surrounded by technology - a fact that instantly brings to mind DC's Batman and Marvel's Iron Man.

Barry Allen and Al Rothstein (Image via DC)

Viewers have already seen Ant-Man grow into Giant-Man, and even the Atom grow huge in the CW shows. Apart from the obvious similarities in his powers with these other superheroes of the past, Al Rothstein’s character was exactly like Barry Allen. Doctor Fate hardly used any spells that Doctor Strange hasn’t used on screen. Moreover, there was the trademark tech-wiz that Cyclone was for this group.

The only familiar character in the film was Superman, who showed up at the end for one scene. However, this wasn't enough to pull in huge crowds, especially after that scene got leaked way before Black Adam hit theatres.

Another one-dimensional villain

Along with unfamiliar characters, fans got yet another CGI-induced DC villian who had no new motivation besides conquering and/or destroying Earth. Besides, Sabbac didn’t even look anything like Ishmael and the flatness of his character further proved that the villain had no admirable points about him.

While Black Adam failed to bring in positive reviews and good revenue from the box office collections, a few devoted fans of the superhero found several factors to like the movie. On that note, let us know whether or not you liked the movie in the comments section below!

Edited by Priya Majumdar