Superhero fatigue seems to be hitting Marvel and DC hard. Along with some sort of mid-level audience response to Quantumania (it made GOODlike it made money, but it wasn’t great), Shazam! Fury of the gods is also underperforming at the box office. While Variety reports that Shazam 2 opened at number 1 this weekend, early reports indicate that it grossed around $30 million domestically versus the estimated $35-40 million, against an estimated production/marketing budget of $210 million. Compare that to Creed IIIwhich enjoyed an impressive 100 million opening weekend last week.
Comparing this opening weekend to the first Shazam! The film, which had a $54 million opening, shows a pretty significant downturn in public enthusiasm for the film franchise. Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Pro, says “it’s off to a soft start…Comic book movies regularly show that without an event-level hook, it’s hard to live up to it.” performance of predecessors.
There are lots of reasons why this could happen. Poor reviews, a general fatigue with superhero movies, a lackluster marketing campaign, the lack of branded superheroes (Shazam isn’t exactly Superman, or even Aquaman) or even DC Studios’ recent redesign, now under James Gunn, could all be a reason for the box office slowdown.
Shazam! Fury of the gods is currently in theaters.
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