How much did Dwayne Johnson make for Black Adam? DC star's salary explored

It has been almost two months since Black Adam's premiere on October 21, 2022. The film grossed over $390 million dollars overall at the global box office, despite Johnson's claims that it made over $400 million.

The film was a disappointment for critics and received only a 40% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it saw an audience score of 90%, showing that fans loved the film irrespective of its many flaws.

While the budget for the film was something in the range of $190 to $300 million, fans have been curious about one important question: how much did Dwayne Johnson make from Black Adam?

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Dwayne Johnson's earnings in Black Adam has been the higgest salary of his acting career

Black Adam poster (Image via WB Pictures/DC)

Dwayne Johnson, who played the titular character in Black Adam, was paid $22.5 million (185 crores in Indian rupees), which has been the highest salary of his acting career as of yet. It is also much higher than his fellow co-stars from DCEU since Jason Momoa and Joaquin Phoenix will reportedly earn $15 million and $20 million for their upcoming flicks Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Joker: Folie a Deux, respectively.

As for Johnson's co-stars in the film, Aldis Hodge's Hawkman made around $1 million for his role, according to ShowBiz Galore. Noah Centineo, who played Atom-Smasher, earned $700,000. Pierce Brosnan, Marwan Kenzari, and Sarah Shahi made $2 million, $400,000, and $600,000 for their respective roles as Doctor Fate, Ishmael Greggor, and Adrianna Tomaz.

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Critical reception and more on the box office

Upon its release, Black Adam instantly became the target of severe backlash from critics. Glen Weldon of NPR heavily criticized Johnson's acting by calling it "under-seasoned" and "ponderous." Meanwhile, IndieWire's David Ehrlich referred to the film as a "lifeless spectacle" and that the characters of the film were cheap imitations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes.

Citing the financiers, Johnson previously claimed that the film would earn between $52 to $72 million and disputed claims of the film losing $50 million to $100 million. Taking to Twitter, he wrote:

"Waited to confirm with financiers before I shared this excellent #BlackAdam news - our film will PROFIT between $52M-$72M. Fact."

It continues:

"At almost $400M worldwide we are building our new franchise step by step (first Captain America did $370M) for the DC future."

Although the film held the "No. 1 movie in the world" spot in theaters for two weeks, in the second week, ticket sales fell to 60%. On November 11, 2022, Marvel's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever posed a huge competition to the DC film and earned $140 million at its domestic box office.

On the difficulty of a movie's successful reception at the box office, Johnson wrote:

"Of course! Always rooting for our business to win. We all benefit overall when box office flourishes."

The tweet further said:

"Box office success is hard to achieve and always great to see good, hard working people accomplish it #BlackPanther."

However, Black Adam was not the only film to suffer at the box office. Disney's Strange World, David O. Russell's Amsterdam, and Lionsgate's Moonfall all ended up performing poorly at the box office. Hopefully, with HBO Max adding the film to its massive catalog, it will help Black Adam generate additional revenue.