When New line/DC‘s Shazam: Fury of the Gods hit tracking four weeks ago with a low $35M projection, it was shocking and unsurprising to rival distributors. Surprisingly, given a spring full of franchise tentpoles, many of which are seeing record opening domestic highs, how could a DC property like Shazam! can’t keep up with the pack? Not shocking in that — well, it’s a goofy, old man Shazam!
Now while it’s possible for a film to start low in its tracking projections and grow as the studio spends most of a picture’s P&A in the final lap before it opens, the view on Shazam! Wrath of the Gods didn’t budge, and now the David F. Sandberg-directed sequel, made by Warner Bros. newly installed DC cohead Peter Safranis looking at a $30M start in the US/Canada., down 44% from the film’s first $53.5M opening in 2019.
Shazam 2Friday (and previews) at $11.7M is 42% off its $20.3M Friday preview+ first picture. Even Shazam 2 benefiting from family matinees and generating up to a $35M-$40M opening (with no expectations), it’s still off the first picture’s stateside debut. Realizing that we live in a marketplace where we’re used to seeing superhero sequels outperform their predecessors.
Audience diagnostics are turned off for Shazam: Fury of the Gods. DC Captain Marvel received a B+ CinemaScore over the first title’s A, and drew less in the 18-34 demographic than the first chapter, 56% to 64%. The audience will come out first Shazam! was poorer than the CinemaScore results at 79% positive, 59% definite recommendation– the sequel saw similar results at 78% positive, and a 64% recommendation. Men over 25 are the biggest quad for Shazam! in 2019 at 35% and and an 82% grade; The second part saw a 40% share of men over 25 years of age, with a lower grade of 77%. Rivals believe that the marks at first Shazam! is not enough to demand a sequel. Why did the New Line make one? because Shazam! earn income of $75M after all ancillaries minus $100M in production costs and $105M in global marketing costs.
Warners never really dropped the ball on marketing Shazam! wrath of the gods, trotting out the first trailer and the cast at the return-to-in-person San Diego Comic-Con in July. Indeed, to those who saw Shazam 2, 18% said the in-theater trailer, and 16% cited the YouTube trailer as the most influential form of marketing. Some sources exclaim to me that the materials for Shazam! Wrath of the Gods is confused, and the pride of “Everybody is a Shazam” comes out of his being a powerful superhero.
However, that has always been the spirit of this B-tier DC superhero, which goes all the way back to the first film. Also, you can’t blame Warner distribution here for doing their jobs: They protect Shazam 2, keeping it away from Avatar: The Way of Water on Christmas so it has access to Imax and PLF ticket formats this weekend.
Shazam’s inability to fly at the box office has a lot to do with the fact that mainstream DC fans don’t want to see a sequel. It’s not part of a connective tissue in the DC universe, and it never will be, and that’s a problem that DC Bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran is looking to fix. They were very public about laying out their new multiverse, and it was never confirmed Shazam will be a definite part of their “First Chapter, Gods and Monsters”. The exclusion of Shazam took the shine off what should have been a standalone, crowd-pleasing film. Again, a must see for DC fans. In fact, one of the reasons why Shazam was developed at New Line was because it was a lighter comedy project, and an outlier to the gravitas of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Aquaman. While Gunn and Safran did not want to throw away the character played by Zachary Levi, the actor. explained to Deadline’s Natalie Sitek at the sequel’s world premiere that if there is a threequel, “It all comes down to what the people want.”
With the entire DC universe clashing under a newly revamped umbrella, something Gunn and Safran are relying on Walter Hamada’s former design The Flash could be done on June 16, Gunn exclaimed at DC’s press day in January that “As all everyone here probably knows, the history of DC is pretty messed up. It’s f***ed up.”
yes, Shazam is a family property, much like Marvel’s ant man However, Marvel Studios boosted the franchise’s opening to an all-time high of $106.1M with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, because they made the deeper in-universe character important in the context of a larger universe, making it a must-see for fans. A major driver for that triquel was the feature debut of new MCU baddie Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, who was introduced in the Disney+ series Loki. In sum, there is no reason for the audience of The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home to go out of their way and spend time with Shazam in two parts. He is not serious enough for them about the larger canon.
While all of the above may be logical about Shazam! Wrath of the Gods‘ lackluster opening, there was another natural element that didn’t work, and that was the aging of the picture’s protagonist Billy Batson from a 12-year-old in the 2019 film to a teenager in the second part. The first Shazam! fascinated by being like a superhero version of the classic Tom Hanks big, and well, Shazam’s aging into teenagedom isn’t as cute. No one is looking for a superhero sequel Big
Should be Shazam! Wrath of the Gods meet its global debut of $85M from a $125M production cost, is it still profitable? Marketing costs for the sequel are equal to the first, if not less, as the new Warner Bros Discovery is all about promoting their IPs through their owned and operated TV and streaming tentacles. on good spending. Those in the know tell me it’s pretty hard to come by Shazam! Wrath of the Gods in black.
Here are the top 10 box offices as of Saturday AM:
1.) Shazam! Wrath of the Gods (NL) 4,071 theaters Friday $11.7M, 3-days $30M/Week 1
2.) Scream VI (Par) 3,676 (+1) theaters, Fri $5.1M (-73%) 3 days $18M (-60%)/Total $76.5M/Wk 2
3.) Creed III (UAR) 3,477 (-530) theaters Fri $4.3M (-42%), 3 days $15.8M (-42%)/Total $128.1M/Wk 3
4.) 65 (Sony) 3,405 theaters, Fri $1.575M (-64%), 3 days $5.57M (-55%)/Total $22.1M/Wk 2
5.) Ant-man and the Wasp Quantumania (Dec) 2,650 (-455) theaters, Fri $1.175M (-30%) 3 days $4.7M (-33%), Total $206.4M/Wk 5
6.) Bear of Cocaine (Uni) 2,687 (-517) theaters, Fri $1.09M (-38%), 3 days $3.79M (-39%)/Total $58.4M/Wk 4
7.) Revolution Jesus (LG) 2,354 theaters (-165), Fri $956K (-33%) 3 days $3.4M (-33%)/Total $45.4M/ Week 4
8.) Champions (Foc) 3,039 (+9) theaters, Fri $860K (-53%) 3 days $2.85M (-45%)/Total $10.4M/Wk 2
9.) Avatar: The Way of Water (Dec) 1,190 theaters (-485), Fri $508K (-17%) 3 days $2M (-23%)Total $678.1M /Wk 14
10.) Puss in Boots: Last Wish (Uni) 1,735 theaters (-81), Fri $420K (+19%) 3 days $1.8M (+3%), Total $182.9M/Wk 13