Warner Bros. had such high hopes for Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson worked hard for more than a decade to get the project greenlit, with it finally hitting the big screen last October. However, after all is said and done, Warner Bros. may end up losing money on Black Adam.
It is not the kind of start that James Gunn and Peter Safran wanted for DC Studios. Granted, neither were around when the movie was produced, but the duo will still bear the burden of recouping what some insiders suggest is a sizable loss. Black Adam had a good box office run, earning $387 million globally in seven weeks, but it is not even close to breaking even.
The Dwayne Johnson-led movie had a production cost of around $195 million according to sources. To top it off, the big-budget film, with arguably one of the biggest Hollywood stars, still required a hefty $100 million in marketing according to an industry insider.
However, another source within Warner Bros. has said that $100 million in marketing expenses is too high, since the scale of most advertising campaigns have been dialed down since the COVID pandemic. The source revealed that the actual marketing cost may be closer to $80 million.