Since October 19, the anti-hero Black Adam, played for DC by Dwayne Johnson, has been a hit at the cinema. With viewership close to 90% on Rottent Tomatoes despite a number of pretty harsh reviews, the film seems to appeal to a wide audience.
Black Adam: box office success for the film with The Rock
At the time of writing these lines, Black Adam a generated over $319.7 million at the international box office. A total accumulated in three short weeks, and which should allow the feature film to achieve a nice career in theaters. Unsurprisingly, and despite the presence of a post-credits scene which caused a lot of talkBlack Adam follows a fairly classic curve in terms of attendance.
This falls, and the output of Black Panther : Wakanda Forever shouldn’t help Black Adam. Be that as it may, the long-awaited adaptation of this violent, sad and delusional anti-hero has found his audience. What to ensure the production of a sequel? Nothing is done, but the lights are rather positive for DC, which has just launch DC Studios under James Gunn and Peter Safranin order to develop a coherent set of productions.
In Black Adam, we find Teth-Adam, imprisoned for 5000 years after gaining immense powers by the Egyptian gods. Imagined as the anti-Shazam!, he discovers his former kingdom controlled and exploited by mercenaries. Screaming revenge, Black Adam is seen by Hawkman’s Justice Society as a threat which must be controlled.
Black Adam could very well have been banned for those under 17
Featuring a dark and violent character, Black Adam is only rated PG-13 in the United States. As a result, the scenes of confrontations only show what is strictly necessary, which is part of the criticisms addressed to the film. Warner Bros has indeed limited the level of violence, whether physical or verbal, so that the film is accessible to as many people as possible. However, Michael L. Sale, editor on the film, says the film had R-rated potentialthat is to say, reserved for an audience aged at least 17, but that the production and the directors have asked to go slowly to ensure a family audience in cinemas:
It would have been easy to do an R-rated version of Black Adam, wouldn’t it? Personally, I would have loved that. I would have been there, like, “Oh, let him put his hand through people. Make him go crazy!”, right? I’m an old guy, and I’m a horror guy. I would have been happy. But the directors and producers reminded me that they wanted to make a movie for everyone: “Dwayne has a huge fanbase, and he has a family fanbase.”
For us, it wasn’t about keeping the tone of DC, past or present. It was about establishing our tone and our Black Adam brand. It is also a film that you can watch with your children. (…) I was really happy that we went in this direction. I think that’s what these movies are for. It opens the way to a lot of different things.
In other words, it is because of Dwayne Johnson, indirectly of course, that the film could not be more violent. Known for his roles in Red Notice, Jungle Cruise, Fast and Furious, Doom, Hercule or Jumanjithe former wrestler called The Rock quickly found success in the cinema. Enjoyed by various age groupsit is therefore a motor for the public to go to the cinema. Considering the popularity of the actor, Warner Bros has therefore makes the choice to limit the violence in Black Adam, so that the panel of potential spectators is wider. Visibly, this choice paid offas shown by the film’s current box office total.