Dwayne Johnson Works Relentlessly to Emphasize the Bright Side of his Catastrophic Time Playing Black Adam

After dubbing himself as “Franchise Viagra” more than a decade ago, Dwayne Johnson proved his worthiness of such an esteemed title when he guided the Journey, G.I. Joe, Fast & Furious and Jumanji franchises to their most impressive box office numbers yet after joining them all – but things didn’t go so smoothly when it came time to launch his own brand with Black Adam.

Contemplating the press tour for DCU’s blockbuster movie, it is easy to experience second-hand embarrassment. Johnson and his colleagues from Seven Bucks were unashamedly promoting sequels, spinoffs, and crossovers – all with Johnson taking center stage as he tried to create a corner in the mythology seemingly only so that he can face off against Henry Cavill’s Superman.

After James Gunn and Peter Safran decided they didn’t require the world’s highest-paid star to revive their waning comic book universe, The Rock was left with egg on his face. He hasn’t offered much in terms of public contemplation about Black Adam’s downfall, yet when Variety asked him for reflections during Oscars’ red carpet – he went into a reflective state. Needless to say, plans were crushed after this failure.

“You know, all that I could do, and that we could do, when we were making Black Adam was to put our best foot forward, surround ourselves with the best people, and also, to deliver the best movie we could. The audience score was in the 90s. Critics took a couple of shots. That’s just the business of it, though.”

Despite its tremendous reviews across the board, Black Adam ultimately failed to amass an audience large enough to earn it more than $400 million at the worldwide box office. Thus, given this lack of success for a debut featuring one of cinema’s most bankable stars in its biggest genre, not even the new co-CEOs could make up their mind about whether or not they wanted him around any longer.