Johnson has been criticized for consistently making safe, lucrative choices. Now, Black Adam may be the latest in a string of disastrous choices for him, including bowing out of the Fast and the Furious mega-franchise and disappointing in Jungle Cruise.
As Variety reports, Black Adam isn’t alone in a Thanksgiving weekend that’s down 10% compared to this time last year. This weekend saw Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans crash and burn and Disney tank with Strange World, with their saving grace being the continued strength of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Black Adam tanking seems to show audience dissatisfaction with the direction at DC. They grew tired of material seemingly being thrown at the wall to battle Disney’s massive Marvel juggernaut that’s dominating movies and TV screens everywhere, like the currently huge Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
That said, despite Black Adam taking a worse beating than Superman could have given him, it’s not the only movie up against the ropes during this holiday season. Movies generally tend to do decently during Thanksgiving and Christmas, as it’s a way for families to spend time together without having to deal with all that pesky forced interaction. Disney’s Strange World is taking a drubbing that puts it in line with recent animated failures like Encanto, which only found its audience on Disney Plus, and Lightyear, which didn’t find an audience at all. The studio is blaming it on the conservative markets of China, Malaysia, etc. not wanting LGBTQ+ content, but that only goes so far for a movie with weak trailer showings and almost no advertising.
Spielberg, past his heyday as a guaranteed box office success simply by having his name attached, is seeing one of his worst showings ever with his childhood reminiscence movie, The Fabelmans, with the 10% downturn from this time last year hitting him as well and bringing his movie to a slim $2.2 million earning against its budget of $40 million, which Universal is hoping to make up with the film hitting the On Demand markets only weeks after its initial release.
While everyone is trying to give reasons why this year looks worse (with blame falling on short distribution runs and foreign markets, but strangely no mention of the ongoing Covid pandemic or recession), only a tried and true staple like the latest Marvel Studios entry is proving to hold its own at the box office. Everything else seems doomed to go the way of Black Adam.
Black Adam is in theaters now.
MORE: Strange World Review
Source: Variety
