Shazam! Fury of the Gods makes impressive $30.5 million debut
We’ve seen some uplifting headlines in recent weeks as films such as Creed III And scream VI Coming out with the best franchise openings. This week we don’t have such a headline. The DC Extended Universe has had its fair share of ups and downs. Unfortunately, this weekend is one of those “down” weekends Shazam! wrath of the gods came in at a very staggering $30.5 million, right in line with our predictions Thursday, but below the $35 million the studio forecast earlier in the week. That means this sequel is down about 44% from when the original film opened, and that film actually had a budget about $25 million less than this one. To put an even finer tooth comb on it: Black Adam which opened late last year and was considered quite a big bombshell, opening at just over $67 million.
What went wrong? Could it be that the DC Universe is getting a full reboot, starting with 2025’s James Gunn directing? Superman legacy the audience realizing that those last few movies really don’t matter at all in the old DCEU? Sure, we’ve all heard the party line that there’s a future for these characters in the new universe, but that was really just something they had to say in order to incomplete the projected box office of the films they still have in the pipeline to incriminate , and quite frankly, I don’t blame them for that. They couldn’t let James Gunn say these films were just released because they’re contractually obligated to do so. After seeing the film I can say that another reason this film did so poorly is that it is quite simply a huge disappointment. I personally loved the first movie, it was a fun superhero movie that didn’t take itself too seriously, which was a welcome change from the rest of the DCEU. This one became a standard CGI monster movie comic book by its third act, indistinguishable from many before it. Of course, as we always say, film is subjective, and as much as I didn’t like this sequel, our own JimmyO seemed to genuinely enjoy it, giving it a solid 9/10 in his review.
So where do we go from here? As much as I thought they should just dump The Lightning Movie due to the main stars’ off-screen criminal activities, I can’t deny the trailer looks amazing! Of course, 99% of that is simply due to Michael Keaton coming back as Batman. But if we are to believe Tom Cruise, and here at Joblo we always believe Tom Cruise, then The Lightning will be “everything you want in a movie” and “the kind of movie we need now”. That’s kudos from the man who, according to Steven Spielberg, “saved the film industry!” But then you did Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom coming December 25, 2023, which is more in line with the now-ended DCEU. So we’re in a weird time right now between the DC universes of the past and the future, and I’m not exactly sure if there was ever a plan to tie them together or not, despite what they’re telling us.
Second place is scream VI which saw a 61% fall in the horror film standard that weekend to reach $17.5 million. Horror movies are always frontloaded, especially when it comes to a movie Scream where you don’t want the internet to ruin any twists and turns before you get a chance to watch it. I was definitely expecting a slightly better hold for this one, as it had strong reviews (including a 9/10 from our own JimmyO) and a solid 92% audience rating. In addition, newer horror films are popular Smile And M3GAN killed it at the box office (Smile only down 18% on the second weekend M3GAN almost 40% lost. That is the good news scream VI would easily surpass the 1996 original’s $103 million domestic gross and become the highest-grossing film in the franchise.
The third place belongs to Creed III with an additional $15.3 million added to the impressive running total of $127.6 million. Not too shabby for star Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut. Obviously, this film could have gone wrong without Sylvester Stallone’s connective tissue Rocky but Michael B. Jordan has crafted a solid film Believe Universe that could stand on its own two feet.
Adam Driver’s film came in fourth 65 with an additional $5.8 million, down just 53% since it opened last week. As I said before, I expected this one to have a much harder drop than it actually had. Even though the filmmakers hate the marketing for this movie and give away the dinosaur surprise, that’s exactly what got people into theaters for this movie because after seeing this one I didn’t think the movie lived up to the trailer .
The top 5 is rounded off by the release of the other cinema universe Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at $4.07 million and a running total of $205.8 million five weeks after release. Not a bad sum, but not the behemoth we’d expect from a Marvel release, especially considering the $200 million budget.
The rest of the top ten are using your leftovers cocaine bear Grossing $3.8 million for a running total of nearly $60 million, followed by the faith-based film’s very successful run Jesus Revolution with another $3.5 million added to his running total of $45.5 million. Faith-based films tend to be in the top ten for a week or two and then disappear, but this one has shown very solid staying power and should continue that trajectory into Easter.
In eighth place comes the film directed by Bobby Farrelly master at $3.03 million, down 41% from last week and just over $10 million overall. While number nine and ten belong to two of the biggest films of 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water And Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continued their dominance with $1.9M and $1.5M respectively.
Did you make it to the cinema this weekend? If so, do let us know what you saw and how you liked it, and don’t forget to check out our poll where we ask you what your favorite DCEU movie was.
