Is there an ego so big The Rock can’t lift it?
When we look back at the incredibly weird and awful year that beset Warner Bros. Discovery and its DC Films/DC Studios brand in 2022, few things stand out more bizarrely than Dwayne Johnson’s role in it all. After years of asserting that Black Adam was the super-powered antihero that was going to take the world by storm—while comic nerds eyed each other with increasing skepticism about the theatrical draw of a semi-popular Shazam! bad guy, no matter who was playing him—2022 saw Johnson finally make his move. Taking advantage of disarray at DC Films (most notably the departure of hapless placeholder executive Walter Hamada from the role of the studio’s president), Johnson threw his considerable weight around last year, attempting to will into existence a post-Justice League version of the DC franchise largely centered on his character, including ambitious plans to bring back Henry Cavill’s Superman so Black Adam could glower at him while Kanye songs and Rolling Stones covers played listlessly in the background.
Not only did none of this work, with Black Adam massively under-performing at the box office: It also apparently pissed off a bunch of people at Warner Bros., who were not happy that Johnson had been acting like, say, a billion dollar movie star, when his actual track record falls considerately short of those massive numbers. (With the modest exception of the Jumanji movies, Johnson’s biggest openers have all piggy-backed on some other factor, most notably his most consistent performers over in the Fast franchise.)
Said unhappiness is all per Variety, which reports on a number of ways Johnson apparently pissed of his potential collaborators at the studio. The most hilarious, and most on-brand, being the reveal that Johnson demanded the studio set up a tequila bar focused on his celebrity vanity tequila Teremana at the Black Adam premiere—even though the film itself was PG-13. (He also apparently pushed for a producing credit on the animated League Of Super Pets, despite doing very little to actually promote the film.) The implication of it all (as well as the whole Black Adam-focused plan he was pitching) being that The Rock was here to save DC from itself, so all involved had better play nice.
All of which might have flown, had Black Adam made Avengers-level amounts of cash. Instead, it whimpered into and out of the box office at a tepid-for-superheroes $350 million, paving the way for Peter Safran and James Gunn to take over and attempt to revitalize the flailing studio. Meanwhile, the whole debacle has painted a picture of Johnson as a guy drunk on his own image as a massive star—and, of course, on the smooth, delicious taste of fine Teremana tequila. Teremana: The Tequila The Rock Won’t Shut Up About!