Paramount needs 30 movies a year. That’s the promise attached to the Warner Bros. merger, which is set to close by early October.
Our Paramount sources say pitches are already being taken for movies and TV series to fill that slate.
So here’s one for the pile: Black Adam 2. The script is ready to go.
Black Adam Didn’t Bomb
Black Adam finished with $393.4 million worldwide in 2022.
It did that without China, where Warner Bros. movies weren’t getting released at the time. Dwayne Johnson is huge with Chinese audiences, and a China release possibly could have added another $100 million.
When claims spread that the movie bombed, Johnson went on record with the numbers, posting in December 2022: “Our film will PROFIT between $52M-$72M. Fact.”
He compared it to the first Captain America movie, which launched a franchise off similar money.
Four years later, DC fans are still proving his point. Supergirl just launched on HBO Max behind The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Black Adam on Nielsen.
Even James Gunn’s Superman dropped below Black Adam on the weekly Nielsen charts last year.
The Ending That Never Paid Off
Black Adam ended with Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller warning Black Adam to stay in Kahndaq, and Henry Cavill’s Superman flying in to tell him they should talk.
Waller tied the movie to Suicide Squad. Cavill tied it to the SnyderVerse.
DC was in disarray at the time, with different parties vying for control. One of them was Johnson, who wanted DC built around Black Adam. Call it the Black AdamVerse, and it was all leading to Black Adam vs. Superman.
Cavill even announced he was back as Superman days after the movie opened. Contracts must not have been signed.
What happened instead is James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios. As our insiders have explained, Gunn had David Zaslav’s ear, and Zaslav didn’t want to spend any more money on DC with a sale coming, so DC got recast with cheaper talent.
Cavill was out. Black Adam 2 was dead.
Johnson and his Seven Bucks team thought they were locked in at DC. All of that went out the window with Gunn.
Gunn Out, De Luca In, Snyder Back
Gunn’s DCU has been a big bust, with Supergirl leaving theaters as the lowest-grossing DC movie ever.
Our insiders say Gunn is out when his contract expires next year.
Matt Reeves continues with his Batman universe. Zack Snyder is being brought back for the SnyderVerse and The Dark Knight Returns, where Snyder wants Cavill as his Superman.
And it will all be under Mike De Luca.
Here’s the part worth appreciating: De Luca and Pam Abdy are the Warner Bros. film bosses who signed off on Cavill’s Superman cameo in Black Adam four years ago. The executives who approved that ending are the ones taking over.
Per our sources, De Luca and Abdy are “furiously working to clean up the mess and mend fences” with the creatives who were pushed out.
That describes Dwayne Johnson.
It all fits with the real ending of The Flash we were told about, which was originally supposed to lead to Ben Affleck back as Batman and a Batman Multiverse.
Time To Make The Call
Last November, Johnson closed the door on Black Adam, telling film students he loved building that corner of DC: “Wish that universe well. And on to others.”
That was before Paramount bought Warner Bros.
What’s unknown is whether there is any bad blood between Johnson and Cavill over how the Superman return blew up. A big check from David Ellison would go a long way toward mending that too.
The sequel script is done, and the audience already showed up once, without China’s help.
Maybe Dwayne Johnson should think about making the pitch.
“The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change.”
Again.
