Box Office Blues: Shazam 2 Fails to Meet Projections with $30 Million Opening Weekend

Fury of the Gods Falls Short of Expectations with Disappointing Opening Weekend, Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” debuted at No. 1 in North America, but the sequel failed to live up to expectations with a lackluster $30.5 million opening weekend from 4,071 theaters. This film project earned between $35 million and $40 million, which wasn’t very impressive considering it had a production budget of over $110 million and an additional $100 million in marketing costs.

Disappointing Box Office Results

Compared to the first comic book installment, “Shazam,” which opened to $53.5 million in 2019 and grossed $140 million domestically and $366 million globally, “Shazam 2” fell short with one of the worst starts in the DC Cinematic Universe, aside from pandemic-era releases like “Wonder Woman 1984” ($16.7 million) and “The Suicide Squad” ($26 million), which were both released simultaneously on HBO Max.

Box Office Blues Shazam 2 Fails to Meet Projections with 30 Million Opening Weekend
Box Office Blues Shazam 2 Fails to Meet Projections with 30 Million Opening Weekend

The international box office wasn’t any better for “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” as it only added $35 million from 77 markets for a dismal global start of $65.5 million.

Negative Reviews and Poor Word-of-Mouth

With a “B+” CinemaScore, down from the first film’s “A” grade, and a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score, a significant decline from the original’s 90% average, reviews and word-of-mouth might not help “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” in the coming weeks. The film follows Billy Batson and his foster siblings, who transform into superheroes when they say “Shazam!,” as they team up to fight the Daughters of Atlas, who wield a weapon that could destroy the world. Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren co-star in the film.

The Future of Comic Book Adaptations

“Fury of the Gods” is also a victim of the DC universe’s big reset, with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over and setting it on a new direction. Studios can no longer release just any mega-budgeted comic book adaptation in theaters with the expectation that it will easily gross at least $500 million globally.

Other Box Office Highlights

Elsewhere at the box office, Paramount’s thriller “Scream VI” slid to second place with $17.5 million, Michael B. Jordan’s sports drama “Creed III” took third place with $15.3 million, Sony’s prehistoric sci-fi thriller “65” landed at No. 4 with $5.8 million, and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” rounded out the top five with $4.1 million.

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