“Shazam! Fury of the Gods ” felt the wrath of the market in its theatrical debut this weekend. The New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. superhero film opened to a disappointing $30.5 million from 4,071 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
“Shazam!” The sequel fell short of modest expectations ($35 million) as well as the first film in the series ($53.5 million in April 2019), and took a place at the very back of the launch of the modern DC comics, among “Birds of Prey” ($33 million in February 2020) and “The Suicide Squad” ($26.2 million in August 2021), both rated R.
Directed by David F. Sandberg, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” brings back Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody and Djimon Hounsou, and adds Helen Mirren, Rachel Zegler and Lucy Liu. Critics, many of whom found the first film charming, were largely unsatisfied with this show. It currently has a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 53%.
Audiences were more positive about the sequel, giving it an overall B+ CinemaScore. The younger crowd was even happier.
“This movie is obviously lighter than we thought,” said Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. to. We hope to get as many as possible.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” cost a reported $125 million to produce, not factoring in marketing and promotional costs. Internationally, it earned $35 million from 77 overseas markets including China, bringing its total earnings to $65.5 million.
DC Store at Warner Bros. “Shazam! 2” is one of the few holdovers from the old regime, which includes “The Flash” coming in June and the new “Aquaman” in December.
“Part of the total overhaul of DC our company with Peter Safran and James Gunn to reset for the future,” Goldstein said. “This is all about the future for us.”
For Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, there is a silver lining in Warner Bros.’ and DC has “another No. 1 under its belt.”
“They’re trying to reset and re-set the brand,” Dergarabedian said. “You don’t change the trajectory for a big brand like DC without taking time. This is a work in progress and this is one step in that journey.
Second place went to “Scream IV” in its second weekend in theaters. The horror pic, distributed by Paramount, fell 61% from its debut and added $17.5 million, bringing its domestic total to $76 million.
In its third weekend, “Creed III” grossed an additional $15.4 million to land at No. The film directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan has now grossed $127.7 million in North America. “65” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” rounded out the top five with $5.8 million and $4.1 million, respectively.
After last Sunday’s Oscar sweep, A24 added more than 1,000 screens for the encore “Everywhere All At Once,” which earned an additional $1.2 million. “The Whale,” for which Brendan Fraser won best actor, played on 509 screens and earned $145,230.
“What audiences like today is a variety of content,” Dergarabedian said. “Overall, it’s going to be a strong month with ‘Creed III’ and ‘Scream VI’ getting the best franchise debuts. We might see the same with ‘John Wick 4.’
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore, with Wednesday through Sunday in parentheses. The final domestic figures will be released Monday. 1. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” $30.5 million. 2. “Scream VI,” $17.5 million. 3. “Creed III,” $15.4 million. 4. “65,” $5 ,8 million. 5. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” $4.1 million. 6. “Cocaine Bear,” $3.9 million. 7. “Jesus Revolution,” $3.5 million -million. 8. “Champion,” $3 million. 9. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $1.9 million. 10. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $1.5 million.