Written By Mikey Sutton • Editor-in-Chief • Owner
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is tracking to experience a disastrous opening weekend at the box office. In other words, Zachary Levi might need to take DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran on additional skiing trips to save his job.
Even before this, Levi’s future at DC Studios seemed doubtful. After all. Safran’s partner James Gunn will reboot the DCEU. Well, sort of. He won’t fold the SnyderVerse into his DCU continuity.
Nevertheless, he’ll make sure his Suicide Squad and Peacemaker casts remain employed. Of course, his wife Jennifer Holland is included with the survivors. Biased? What else do you want to call it?
Still, if The Flash kisses $1 billion global, sources have long reported that Ezra Miller stays in the role. No, the CW’s Flash Grant Gustin won’t replace him. In any case, this means the DCEU remains alive as part of the Elseworlds universe. Levi should be so lucky.
Shazam! 2 Tracking To Bomb On Opening Weekend
Image: Warner Bros. Discovery
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Shazam! sequel is projected to crash and burn on its opening weekend. How bad? Here goes:
“The movie came on tracking Thursday. Among the services suggesting $35 million is NRG, Hollywood’s leading research firm, according to those with access to the data. Hollywood studios and tracking companies tend to be conservative in their estimates, as tracking has become fraught in the pandemic era. Numerous movies in recent months have opened well above tracking, or below.”
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will bring out the Alka-Seltzer with that microscopic take. In contrast, Shazam! grabbed $53.5 million in its initial weekend. While that wasn’t too impressive either, $35 million sounds like a bomb.
The day before THR, I revealed the $35 million projection with YouTube personality Syl Abdul. Watch it here.
And this isn’t surprising. Shazam! Fury of the Gods has generated little buzz. I’m being polite here. Hardly anyone is talking about this film in geek circles. As a matter of fact, the most discussion Shazam! acquired lately is for the wrong reasons. Levi blamed the MCU’s dominance over DC’s movies on Zack Snyder’s work.
“I would just say be patient, and give them some space and some time to try and really make something special. And I think something that DC deserves to have, and something that [Zack] Snyder tried to do and it just didn’t ultimately materialize, guys.”
Image: Warner Bros. Discovery
If Levi believes his Shazam! franchise will lift the DCU above Marvel Studios’ blockbusters, it’ll take some strong magic to pull that off. Critics’ positive reviews pushed 2019’s Shazam! to a $140.5 million domestic take. Normally, for a major comic-book adventure, those are small fries. But Shazam! had a modest budget, and the overseas market took care of the rest.
Like a rabbit in a magician’s hat, this will vanish quickly.