Dwayne Johnson Is Upset About Black Adam
Dwayne Johnson replied to a Twitter post by IGN to claim the site was not being fair by comparing the box office performance of Black Adam against Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Dwayne Johnson snapped back against a Twitter post from IGN today which pointed out the box office gross difference between his movie Black Adam and the recently released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As seen above, the IGN post noted that the Marvel Cinematic Universe film had surpassed Dwayne Johnson’s total by a pretty enormous sum. In response, the actor commented on the post in what can generally be read as a snide tone, implying that the post was not “neutral.”
It is unclear why exactly Dwayne Johnson feels that IGN is not being “neutral” in the case of posting what are factual numbers (or even why it would be their responsibility). The Jungle Cruise star also states that he “love[s] competing,” but does seem to feel the need to justify why his DC Studios film is not as financially successful as its literal competition from Disney. Specifically, the incredibly famous movie star apparently feels that the global branding of Black Panther is unmatchable, though he has the full power of Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the largest media companies in the world.
To be fair, Dwayne Johnson does have a point. The first Black Panther movie was a success on a nearly unprecedented level, being the highest-grossing movie by a Black filmmaker (in this case, Ryan Coogler) and the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Chadwick Boseman-led movie instantly became a fan-favorite installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a pop culture mainstay.
Dwayne Johnson goes on to say that “no one even heard of” Black Adam or the Justice Society a year ago, which is probably a bit of a slap to the fans of both. Black Adam was created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck in 1945 and the Justice Society first appeared in 1940, so it is safe to say there was some brand awareness over the last eight decades or so. Once again, Dwayne Johnson is a very famous man and Black Adam was heavily promoted by Warner Bros., so it’s not like it was a completely uneven playing field.
It is probably safe to assume that Dwayne Johnson is a highly competitive person, given his enormous level of success in show business in any number of different fields. It has got to sting a little bit to have your long-in-development dream project get beat at the box office by tens of millions of dollars. On the other hand, it seems like plans for more Black Adam projects are already in development, so maybe he’ll come out on top on the next one.
Specifically, Dwayne Johnson seems pretty committed to the idea that Black Adam will get to fight Superman, and Henry Cavill also seems pretty on board (especially if he can play a slightly less dour version of the Kryptonian). It also seems that the new James Gunn-led DC Studios is going to be taking Dwayne Johnson’s preferences pretty seriously (along with a few other stars like Margot Robbie). If he cares about winning the box office game next time, we’ll definitely be hearing about it.
