A Dwayne Johnson Summer Blockbuster Is Killing It On Streaming
Who doesn't love The Rock?
Any movie with Dwayne Johnson is going to be a huge hit, even when it goes on a streaming platform years after its initial release. San Andreas is currently on HBO Max and it just cracked the top ten streaming movies in the US. If you’re looking for a high-octane disaster movie, you can certainly do worse than this flick.
Dwayne Johnson stars in the movie about a massive earthquake that rocks California. He plays a helicopter rescue pilot who must navigate the destruction to save his daughter. The cast also includes Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Colton Haynes, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, Paul Giamatti, Hugo Johnston-Burt, Art Parkinson, Will Yun Lee, Kylie Minogue, and many more. Brad Peyton directs with a screenplay by Carlton Cuse, Andre Fabrizio, and Jeremey Passmore. The movie wasn’t super well-received, with critics giving it a pretty dismal 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences giving a 52%. While the movie didn’t necessarily receive glowing reviews, critics and audiences agree that the special effects are pretty incredible and the performances are enjoyable as well. The biggest complaints were about the plot and the thin characters.
As far as the box office goes, the movie fared a lot better. It managed to pull in just over $474 million worldwide against a budget of $110 million. As always, Dwayne Johnson is box office gold, and the movie had no problem making the studios some money. The movie did well enough that the studios have talked about a sequel for a while now. The most recent update about the sequel came in 2021, with Warner Bros Pictures still wanting to move forward with it at some point in the future. Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Production company has decided to push the project in favor of other films for now.
While a sequel for San Andreas might not be happening in the near future, Dwayne Johnson is staying plenty busy elsewhere. Not only is he working on bringing the XFL back, a more fast-paced version of the NFL that previously failed before, but he’s also keeping his acting career going full speed ahead. His next two movies are part of the DC Universe, with the animated DC League of Superpets just around the corner. The movie will see the superpowered pets of DC’s biggest superheroes, like Superman and Batman, going on a rescue mission to save Superman when he’s kidnapped. Dwayne Johnson stars as Krypto the Superdog and the rest of the cast is rounded out by Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, John Krasinski, Marc Maron, Kate McKinnon, Keanu Reeves, and more. That movie will be hitting theaters on July 29.
Dwayne Johnson’s bigger blockbuster DC project is the upcoming Black Adam, where Johnson stars in the titular role. Black Adam tells the story of the superpowered anti-hero as he takes on the Justice League of America, which consists of Hawkman, Cyclone, Dr. Fate, and Atom Smasher. Black Adam has faced a couple of delays in the lead-up to its release, but it looks like it’s finally ready to come out on October 21. Dwayne Johnson has been saying that the movie will change the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe, so it’ll be interesting to see just how powerful this character will be compared to other major DC powerhouses. Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani. The cast list also includes Sarah Shahi, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, and more.
As for upcoming projects, Dwayne Johnson has quite a few lined up after the Superpets movie and Black Adam. Red One should be the next big movie project, and it’ll star Chris Evans and Johnson in a movie with a plot being kept under wraps. He also has a movie called The King in development. The movie tells the story about King Kamehameha, the legendary king who united the Hawaiian islands. The movie will be directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Randall Wallace. The next movie after that appears to be San Andreas 2, which will presumably follow up directly from the 2015 original. Until then, you can hop on HBO Max and check out the movie before the sequel is inevitably made.
