Dwayne Johnson Won’t Allow One Of His Movies To Go To Streaming?
Dwayne Johnson has done streaming releases, but is refusing for this one.
This article is more than 2 years old
Since the idea of a hybrid movie release (on streaming and in theaters at the same time) first came up, the idea has been controversial. While many studios have made deals with creators to amend their contracts and make hybrid releases viable, it’s still not smooth sailing. Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney over the release of Black Widow on Disney+. Following those events, Jungle Cruise was released the same way, but Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt seem okay with their film’s release fate. At least, as far as they are making the public aware. The Rock hasn’t seemed overly averse to streaming. He has a new project coming to Netflix with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, Red Notice, that he’s also a producer for. At the end of the day, he seems positive about this new release method. However, when it comes to Black Adam, his long-awaited DC debut, does the star feel differently?
According to what sources for We Got This Covered are claiming, Dwayne Johnson will not even consider any kind of streaming release for Black Adam. They claim that the minute that discussion came up, he shot the idea right down. Currently, in 2021, HBO Max has been releasing movies on streaming and in theaters at the same time. This is how films like Wonder Woman 1984 were released for DC. However, Warner Bros is moving toward movie theater exclusive releases in 2022. Or at least, that’s what they last claimed. It’s hard to say where Warner Bros may be at with their release strategy a year from now. The pandemic has seen the movie industry shift again and again, at a fast pace. Is it realistic to expect that Dwayne Johnson can refuse to stream Black Adam at release, even if it means pushing the movie’s release date back?
Hopefully, for the July 29, 2022 release date, that won’t be an issue. However, it’s hard to give strict rules on where the industry will be at that time. Right now, Marvel is seeing a great movie theater release for Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings. But by July, we’ll likely be in a whole other landscape. In fact, we may have crossed through several by that time. This is something Dwayne Johnson likely knows as an actor and producer. If he is pushing hard for theater only, on this particular movie, it sounds like he may be willing to move the date.
This raises questions, however, about why the star is so adamant about this particular film’s release. Why is he happy to have Red Notice on Netflix but so strict on a theater-only release for Black Adam? Well, for one thing, he may not. So far, this is only a rumor and it’s to be taken with a grain of salt. For another thing, Dwayne Johnson has been aiming to play Black Adam for DC for a great many years. He’s a prolific actor with a lot of roles, but this has always been something special for him. It may be that he sees the movie theater-only release as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It may also be that the box office numbers are a matter of reputation and he wants to see them go as high as they can. Whatever the case, it would make sense that Black Adam holds some emotional ties for him. It’ll be interesting to see how his big DC movie theater only works out for him.
