Black Adam is a hit on HBO Max

Another source, Samba TV, reported that 1.2 Million U.S. households watched HBO Max in just three days since its arrival on the streaming platform.

Meanwhile, Variety reported that Black Adam was the top trending movie for the week of December 12 to 18. Clearly, while the box office results were something of a disappointment (largely due to being banned in China and in some areas of the Middle East where Dwayne Johnson is hugely popular), the film is still making waves and bringing in significant return of investment. Given that Johnson himself stated that Black Adam is actually profitable, this should come as no surprise.

But now that the future of a Black Adam sequel or the DCEU continuing is all but dead after DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn made controversial announcements, what impact does this make?

Black Adam being a hit on the HBO Max streaming service is certainly a win for the film after falling short of studio expectations at the box office when it hit theaters. But developing the film wasn't cheap, as some reports state it costed around $200 million (excluding additional marketing costs).

This, of course, does not scale well compared to The Batman, which grossed over $770 million globally earlier this year. Black Adam, on the other hand, ended its theatrical run with around $390 million at the international box office. While this gross is respectable, it is lower than what Warner Bros. Discovery was likely expecting it to do.

During the film's press rounds, Johnson would often mention that Black Adam took around 15 years to prepare as a passion project. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film also featured the live action film debut of the Justice Society of America, with Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate.

The film follows Teth-Adam's story after being in stasis for 5000 years and being released from that magical prison to battle Intergang, a criminal organization that took over the nation of Kahndaq. Most fans praised the entertainment value of the DCEU film, and lauded the cameo of Henry Cavill being back as Superman during the mid-credits scene.

The scene seemingly teased an upcoming sequel that will see the two heavy-hitter superheroes squaring off, with Cavill also appearing in many other projects. But Peter Safran and James Gunn had other plans for DC Studios, canceling Cavill's Superman return, as well as nixing the third Wonder Woman film set to star Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins. It has also been rumored that Cavill and Gadot's cameos in The Flash will be cut from the final theatrical release.

Aside from the HBO Max streaming platform, Black Adam is set to arrive on blu-ray, 4K HD, and DVD physical media on January 3, 2023.