Black Adam has received a digital release on the streaming platform HBO Max and has fallen short of the streaming debut of Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Black Adam was theatrically released in October and delivered an underwhelming performance at the box office after a respectable opening weekend of $67 million in the United States and Canada. With Dwayne Johnson’s DCU debut greeted with a mixed reception, it has only been dampened by DC Studios’ restructuring following James Gunn’s appointment as the new co-CEO. The outcome led to Henry Cavill’s departure from the Superman role and the announcement that Black Adam will not feature in the first chapter of the new DCU storyline.
Samba TV released data that 1.2 million households viewed Black Adam over its first three days on HBO Max. This falls short of not only The Batman but also other superhero movies’ streaming releases, including Thor: Love and Thunder, which was considered disappointing by MCU standards. There was an upside for HBO Max, which saw a 6% over-index in Gen Z audience figures, and an almost 25% excess of Black households tuning in over the national average. This bodes well for the streaming platform as it proves that positives can be taken from Black Adam. The full quote from Samba TV SVP Dallas Lawrence can be read below:
“While Black Adam’s streaming debut on HBO Max fell short compared to superhero films like Batman, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder, it was a hit with younger and diverse audiences. Black households were more likely to watch the adventure film than the national average by nearly 25 percent, and Gen Z and Millennial audiences also over-indexed on viewership. Appealing to these younger, more diverse audiences is critical as HBO Max continues to find new growth opportunities and widen its subscriber base.”
Is Black Adam A Success Or Not?
There has been plenty of discussions about whether Black Adam can be considered a box office success, and several factors will need to be considered to ascertain the answer. With a reported budget of around $195 million, its current worldwide box office haul of just under $400 million is barely enough to turn a profit. The Batman, another DC product, had a similar budget, yet generated double Black Adam’s opening weekend and almost double its overall worldwide gross. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has also already amassed nearly $800 million.
Though disappointing when compared to competitors in both the MCU and DC entities separate from the DCU, including The Batman and Joker, Black Adam is still the best-performing DCU release since 2018’s Aquaman, vastly outperforming the woeful returns of Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad. However, this may be more of a concern about the DCU’s current state rather than a sign of improvement, with Black Adam still a far cry from Aquaman’s $1.1 billion haul. This points to a wider problem in the DCU’s structure, which has been unmasked in recent months.
Any hopes of a Black Adam sequel had already been majorly slashed amid cancelations of planned projects like Wonder Woman 3, but this announcement confirmed Johnson will not reprise the character any time soon, though his message assured fans that he would find his way to the DCU eventually. Given this revelation and Cavill’s cameo now pointless due to his DCU exit, it’s hard not to label the film a resounding disappointment. The releases of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water have dominated theaters, and Gunn placing Black Adam on the back-burner may just have killed any hopes it had of a decent streaming performance.
Source: Samba TV