Black Adam (2021)

[thecolorsblend]

I get the idea that all anybody from WBD wanted was for Black Adam to come out and not embarrass anybody. And it seems to have succeeded in that. I don't imagine that anybody will apologize for their involvement with Black Adam ten years from now.

[The Dark Knight]

This article explains the box office rather well:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/comics/dwayne-johnson-says-black-adam-making-profits-ends-embarrassing

With a $195 million production budget and about $100 million spent on marketing, Black Adam's total cost came to almost $300 million. However, its worldwide box office total only stands at $384 million. Hence, deducting a rough 50% cut of the theaters, the studio would get around 192-$195 million. This practically means that Black Adam loses around $100 million.

However, a WB representative claimed that Black Adam only needed $400 million to break even instead of $600 million. According to Deadline and the Rock, the movie will be saved by its home video release and streaming release. The outlet claims that outside of the theatrical numbers, the film is supposed to make around $200 million from digital and streaming rentals.

From a pure word of mouth cinema experience it was underwhelming and didn't hit the mark. They're scraping, even into merchandising, just to get to a number that seems respectable. Even then it's an estimate. And that's assuming the WB rep is even telling the truth about the $400 million break even point. Way I see it, Johnson is trying to reduce the embarrassment after talking such a big game about changing the hierarchy.

[Silver Nemesis]

There's some definite number-fudging going on here. Hollywood accounting is dodgy at the best of times, and Warner Bros is notoriously bad at it. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) grossed over $942 million on a production budget of $200 million, and yet WB still ended up losing approximately $167 million on the picture: https://deadline.com/2010/07/studio-shame-even-harry-potter-pic-loses-money-because-of-warner-bros-phony-baloney-accounting-51886/

Black Adam has so far grossed $389 million worldwide on a production budget that might be as high as $230 million. Unless there's some massive ancillary revenue stream we don't know about – like merchandise sales or product placement deals amounting to about $400 million or more in profit – then there's no way this film is breaking even at the box office. According to every technical definition of the term, Black Adam is a bomb.

I understand why Johnson's reluctant to admit this. It's damaging for his career. Until now, he was one of the few actors said to retain real star power. One of the few big names that could guarantee a decent return on investment at the box office. Black Adam's underperformance shows that his name no longer has the marquee value it once did, which means one of the last so-called "movie stars" can no longer draw crowds sizeable enough to warrant his exorbitant salary. Tarantino recently made the following comment about movie stars in superhero films:

"Part of the Marvel-isation of Hollywood is...you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they're not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I'm not the first person to say that. I think that's been said a zillion times... but it's like, you know, it's these franchise characters that become a star."

He's 100% correct. Meanwhile GQ ran the following article about Johnson and Black Adam:

Black Adam's flop signals the slow death of the movie star

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/black-adam-dwayne-johnson-death-movie-star

Major Hollywood stars are absurdly overpaid to begin with, and it's getting more and more difficult for them to justify those salaries. The return on investment just doesn't support it anymore, especially with global box office continuing to decline. It's brand names that sell tickets now, not actors' names.

Now Johnson's being accused of leaking false information to Deadline to put a positive spin on the movie's performance.

https://comicbookmovie.com/black_adam/did-black-adam-star-dwayne-johnson-or-his-team-leak-misleading-details-about-the-movie-a198314#gs.l2i5kp

I've no idea if this is true or not, but he should probably just take the loss and move on.

[thecolorsblend]

The problem that many actors are facing is that residuals have dried up. Ten or twenty years ago, an actor could get made a relatively meager salary with some hope (often justified) that residuals would make up for that. For example, Bob Gunton is just about the epitome of "working actor". But he did one time let slip that his residuals from playing the warden in The Shawshank Redemption came out to six figures some years, which was very much NOT the norm. He indicated that a working actor comparable to him should probably pull down six figures TOTAL in a given year. But Shawshank is such a beloved movie that he made tons of money off it.

Back in those days. These days, it's doubtful.

What changed? Frankly, streaming. As streaming becomes a bigger part of the business for movie studios, the various unions and guilds are not making the money that they used to make. To compensate, the members typically have no choice but to demand a higher salary upfront.

(Yes, the guilds get paid residuals from streaming. But putting that single fact aside, streaming residuals are more complicated and less lucrative than old school residuals.)

Ironically, this is the very state of affairs that the 2007 WGA strike was partially meant to avoid. Somebody from WGA saw the writing on the wall and tried to fight early. In retrospect, it might've been too early. That WGA strike wasn't a total failure. But it was hardly a rousing success either.

Either way, it's likely that another strike will happen in the near future. And the perception most people have is that actors are all overpaid. True or not, that's how most people see it. So, it's unlikely that SAG will go on strike. Ditto WGA. If WGA was capable of getting the job done, they would have done it back in 2007. The producers' guild can't strike either because their job is so nebulous that you can't make a news narrative out of that.

So, I think we should expect the DGA to announce a strike. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But my guess is that within the next five years, rockstar directors will begin priming the pump in the Hollywood trades and on social media maybe six months or a year before a strike occurs. And once DGA goes on strike, it's sort of a no-brainer that the other guilds will join them in solidarity.

If WGA couldn't get the job done in 2007, it's wide open to speculation if WGA will be any more successful in the future. But they're the guild with the best chance of success, in my estimation. So, I would expect them to ultimately be the one to call the strike.

I could be very wrong about all of the above. But in Hollywood, money talks. And at this moment, there's a lot less money than there used to be, which nobody likes.

[The Dark Knight]

There's some definite number-fudging going on here.

Without a doubt. If it was an outright box office success the spin wouldn't be needed.

Now Johnson's being accused of leaking false information to Deadline to put a positive spin on the movie's performance.

https://comicbookmovie.com/black_adam/did-black-adam-star-dwayne-johnson-or-his-team-leak-misleading-details-about-the-movie-a198314#gs.l2i5kp

I've no idea if this is true or not, but he should probably just take the loss and move on.

I'm inclined to believe that. He was promoting the article a lot on his social media page as if it was all the proof he needed to end the debate. But if the article is actually read it doesn't do that at all. At the end of the day, the cinema going public were not as interested in his plans as much as he was. He's never going to admit that, so I'd rather things end here for all involved. There are more interesting films to make if they're determined to keep a shared universe alive.

[thecolorsblend]

From a recent Dark Crisis (whatever that is) comic book. Can you smell what Black Adam is cooking?



It's funny. There are times when "corporate synergy" can backfire. But it's pretty rare for it to backfire this badly this quickly.

I'm thinking comic book Black Adam's resemblance to irl Dwayne Johnson probably won't last much longer.

[thecolorsblend]

The old comics and our own memories are the last resting place for the character now. Because we simply cannot trust what comes next. Case in point this image from the new animated series.



A sissy soyboy cowering as the masculine Lois stands tall, with racebended Jimmy looking on. Modern culture has smeared the construct of Superman and made him even more of a left wing fantasy for my liking. An illegal alien who works for a fake news publication with the American Way tagline officially scrapped. Superman is seen as a mascot for America, which explains the way he's depicted now. It's all about Globalization not patriotism and diversity bingo. It all feels too much like a lesson in reeducation rather than entertainment.

I truly don't know if this is the best thread to continue this aspect of the discussion. But since this is the only post I can find referencing this animated series, and since I have zero intention of starting a separate thread for it, here you go.

Apparently, the show isn't that bad. But it's not so great either.

All in all, not recommended.