Shazam! Fury of the Gods may be the cornerstone of the new plan for the DC universe, but despite being the top film for this weekend’s Box Office, it’s failing to woo both critics and audience alike. Entertainment lawyer and resident Box Office expert, Blake & Wang P.A’s Brandon Blake, unpacks the rather sorry details.
Below Benchmarks
Pre-release tracking suggested the film would open to a $35M weekend, a rather low start for a superhero movie in the modern Box Office. While some optimistically pegged it for $40M, it’s failed both benchmarks, netting only $30.5M for its opening weekend. Needless to say, that’s quite a drop from the $53.5M opening the first Shazam! brought to the table. It could be on-track to be the first DC film outside of the pandemic to fail to reach $100M, but we’re sure that’s a record they could live without.
Dull Reception
While a second weekend boom is always possible, it doesn’t seem likely for the picture, either. It has failed to get much traction with the family demographic that is its key focus, pulling in a decidedly mediocre 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, too. It’s hard not to compare that to the 90% of the previous installment. Of course, it’s not purely to blame for that- families remain one of the most underrepresented demographics in the post-pandemic era. The serious fan segment seems to be skipping it entirely, and critics aren’t as kind as they were for installment one, either.
With a 60% drop for Scream 6, and Creed 3 still turning in a passable number but now in its third weekend, it was enough for Shazam! Fury of the Gods to take the title of the weekend’s best performer, the only other encouraging news is that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniahas passed the $200M benchmark. Not quite what we were hoping to see from the 2023 Box Office but the year is still young, thankfully. Hopefully it will be upwards from here.
Film and Television 