Actor Dwayne Johnson’s big-budget gamble has found an unexpected second life on streaming, cracking the Netflix top 10 in the United States. The 2022 DC Comics adaptation, which struggled to recoup its massive costs at the box office, is now attracting a wave of at-home viewers.
Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam is trending on Netflix
The superhero film landed at number 10 on the platform’s daily chart for August 5, 2026. Black Adam joined a diverse list that included titles like Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Minions. This streaming revival offers a redemption for a project that was originally designed to reshape the DC Extended Universe (via Flix Patrol).
Johnson’s journey with the character began a full decade before the film’s release. He was first attached to appear in Shazam! but the producers, at the actor’s urging, decided the ancient anti-hero deserved his own standalone story. Development moved forward with a screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, later reworked by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra, known for his work with Johnson on Jungle Cruise, signed on in 2019. The production, which filmed primarily at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, also starred Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, and Pierce Brosnan as members of the Justice Society of America.
The box office reality was harsh. Black Adam opened in October 2022 and grossed around $393 million globally. With a production budget pegged between $190 million and $260 million, plus a marketing spend estimated at $80 million to $100 million, the economics were challenging. The film needed to hit roughly $600 million worldwide to turn a clean theatrical profit, a target it never approached.
On Netflix, the metrics have shifted from profit margins to pure viewership. Johnson’s portrayal of the imprisoned ancient superhuman, freed by archaeologists to battle the crime syndicate Intergang, is finding the mass audience that eluded it in cinemas.
