It’s like we at all times say: Nothing good occurs once you launch a superhero film with an exclamation level within the title the place a colon ought to rightly be. Hence information experiences this weekend that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods—genuinely irritating to sort out, for what it’s value—is opening even worse than its preliminary projections, which additionally, to place it in extremely technical trade phrases, sucked.
This is per Deadline, which put in a good quantity of research this weekend into determine why David F. Sandberg’s sequel is about to open at simply $30 million, down from the $53.5 million the unique Shazam! acquired again in 2019. (And even coming in beneath the $35 million projections the sequel was dealing with simply a number of weeks again.) After all, Warner Bros. and New Line did a lot proper, advertising the movie relentlessly, and preserving it out of the jaws of Avatar: The Way Of Water. (It is projected to be the largest film of the weekend, beating Scream VI). The most compelling argument Deadline ends up floating can also be the only: Nobody needs one other goddamn Shazam! film.
Which is much less an indictment of the primary film—which is completely enjoyable, counting on Zachary Levi’s antibiotic-resistant charms—than on the truth that this newest film is orphaned even by the requirements of the parent-light DC Film Universe. While it options a number of cameos from the James Gunn wing of the cinematic universe—and a shock look that would effectively be the final by one of many members of the Zack Snyder-era Justice League—it’s unclear the place the film sits as any form of wider plan. Which could be advantageous—the unique Shazam! was typically higher for its free hyperlinks to its film brethren—besides that there’s been a lot drama kicked up concerning the destiny of this universe, and the methods Tom Cruise favourite The Flash will reshuffle it, that it’s apparently been onerous for audiences to work up any enthusiasm for the canon-adjacent adventures of Billy Batson and his household.
