Black Adam is Warner Bros.' Latest entry in their DCEU saga. Starring Dwayne Johnson, the studio seems to have placed all its eggs in this basket, hoping for a second chance with their DC film saga, which has been struggling of late. Unfortunately, it seems that the film’s critical response is lacking.
Black Adam follows the titular character, also known as Teth-Adam, who must team up with the Justice Society of America to take on Sabbac, who threatens the world. Though the Justice Society of America and Black Adam hold very, very different views, Sabbac is the greater danger, and they must set aside their differences for the sake of the world. The film has received a great deal of promotion and hype from its star and the studio, both of whom have gone so far as to suggest a potential film about a Superman fight with Black Adam may be on the way.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Black Adam is not performing well with critics. At the time of this writing, the site (which compiles reviews and assigns them “fresh” or “rotten” before assigning a percentage point for how many of the reviews were “fresh”) has assigned the film a 52% rating among critics. This indicates that about half of reviews were negative or at least lukewarm among a surveyed 67 reviews.
Black Adam is reportedly a big deal for Warner Bros. The Discovery acquisition has led to the cancellation of certain films such as Batgirl, and there’s been plenty of fan and creative backlash against the studio for it. Since the studio made these movies, it has lost tens of billions in valuation, and it appeared to be hoping that Black Adam would help their situation in some capacity.
Now, it looks like that might not happen if word of mouth kills the film. Critics’ opinions are one thing, but if the audience hates it, it might not be able to make a profit, which Warner Bros. Desperately needs. The film will have to be an audience pleaser to make its money back. Critic reviews are a helpful metric for a film, but Black Adam reviews don’t mean that it’s doomed.
Some films make plenty of money, even if critics don’t generally like them. Some of DC's entries have done so - though Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice performed terribly with critics, it made off with a good box office haul. Still, the executives over at Warner Bros. Are probably sitting uneasily at the prospect of Black Adam being a box office bomb given all of the other bad publicity the studio has received lately.
Black Adam hits theaters on October 21, 2022.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes