Does Warner Bros. Blame James Gunn's DCU Slate Announcement For SHAZAM! 2's Poor BO Performance?

Does Warner Bros. Blame James Gunn's DCU Slate Announcement For SHAZAM! 2's Poor BO Performance?

Shazam! Fury of the Gods was one of the biggest flops in recent memory, and a new report suggests that Warner Bros. Discover may blame, at least partially, the DCU slate announcement...

By MarkCassidy - Apr 22, 2023 12:04 PM EST

Shazam! Fury of the Gods never looked set for a massively successful stint at the box office, but the superhero sequel ended up coming in under its already modest opening weekend projections, and finished its global run with a hugely disappointing $128+ million.

Around the time of James Gunn and Peter Safran's new DCU slate announcement, a lot of fans made it known that their anticipation for the remaining DCEU movies had dissipated because they didn't see much point in getting excited about a film if it was to be the last time they were going to see the characters.

Others didn't see much sense in this (if the movie is good, what does it matter?), but it seems certain higher-ups at Warner Bros. Discovery may be of a similar viewpoint!

According to The Wrap, some studio execs believe that the rebooted slate news at least partially contributed to a decline in "general audience interest." However, they are said to be confident that the DCU can successfully revive interest - and the sagging box office - once it gets underway.

Many felt that the timing of Gunn and Safran's announcement could do a disservice to Shazam! 2, but it remains to be seen how the likes of Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom fare.

What do you think? Did the next that the DCEU was being rebooted hinder Fury of the Gods at the box office, or was it simply not a good enough movie to keep packing theaters? Drop us a comment down below.

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ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 4/22/2023, 12:17 PM
Joker and The Batman are directly responsible.

When the DCEU was the only DC movie universe, audiences had no choice. The bad films did poorly, but still made some money. You have to remember that Aquaman made a billion in 2018.

Joker came out in 2019 and gave audiences a new universe. I think that contributed, but it was still seen as a standalone and DCEU movies still made SOME money. They all did badly, after Joker, but not as badly as they did after The Batman.

The two movies that came out after The Batman did worse than anyone could have imagined.

Black Adam flopped way before Gunn and Safran were announced as co-heads of DC Studios, let alone before the slate was announced.

Also, in Gunn's announcement he tried to make it sound as if Shazam, Blue Beetle and Aquaman were all a part of the DCU.

The Batman was the last straw on the camels back. It rebooted things and gave us a universe that worked. It was A New Hope for a new DCU. People are not going back to the Snyderverse after that.

When Superman Legacy makes a billion dollars, all of this will be academic.
TheSuperMex
TheSuperMex - 4/22/2023, 12:36 PM
@ObserverIO - people did go watch it because it didn’t look good to them. Had nothing to do with other movies.
Drace24
Drace24 - 4/22/2023, 12:32 PM
How about this: It was a movie that audiences didn't quite enjoy. There is no deeper reason, nobody is to blame, it just did't work out. Happens.

Why is everything a mud fight?
iceballsreborn
iceballsreborn - 4/22/2023, 2:02 PM
@Drace24 - I just saw ghosted. 1. it makes Shazam look like a masterpiece 2. Chris evans is a poop actor outside the MCU.
Amaru
Amaru - 4/22/2023, 12:32 PM
Or hear me out... it just didn't look great.

These movies, doesn't matter the studio, Marvel Studios, DC, it doesn't matter. If your movie doesn't look great, people aren't going to show. Doesn't matter if it ends up being good or not.
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 4/22/2023, 12:36 PM
Id argue it was many factor but the biggest being the marketing. It looked awful in the trailers
Shivermetimbers
Shivermetimbers - 4/22/2023, 2:19 PM
@Ha1frican - Give this man a hammer because he just nailed it.
CaptainDC
CaptainDC - 4/22/2023, 12:37 PM
The most important part to kicking off this new DCU is to have a quality product with marketable characters and stars. The rest will figure itself out.

Superman: Legacy has that potential to be a catalyst for success or failure. I don't see it being too much in the middle
MarvelousMarty
MarvelousMarty - 4/22/2023, 12:43 PM
Trailers made it look terrible and I hear that it was indeed terrible.
dragon316
dragon316 - 4/22/2023, 2:28 PM
@MarvelousMarty - every movie has fans some where people like revenant that have high score reviews I didn’t like it.,

Depends on people who you ask
Kadara
Kadara - 4/22/2023, 2:34 PM
@MarvelousMarty - I watched it and it is honestly pretty decent. I think people with children will enjoy it a lot, it's a good family movie.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 4/22/2023, 2:45 PM
@MarvelousMarty - it's a good movie. It just lacks star power -- non-CBM viewers aren't going to go see a film without Chris Hemsworth or Scarlett Johansen, etc. And it lacks a serious villain. When the decision was made not to put Black Adam as the antagonist in the Shazam sequel, that was pretty much the kiss of death.
santoanderson
santoanderson - 4/22/2023, 12:45 PM
I actually paid to see Shazam 2 in theaters. But with that said, the movie didn’t have a whole lot of buzz to bring in casual audiences.

The movie had very little starpower. There was no big name to put on the poster. If you don’t know who Zachary Levi is, or disagree with him politically, who else is there to bring in audiences? Helen Mirren?

The first Shazam performed pretty well because of its good word-of-mouth. At that point, there had yet to be a DCEU movie that got glowing reviews from critics, and I think that brought in a lot of casual audiences. “You want to see Shazam? It’s got a 92% on RT.” The same cannot be said of its sequel. I know people who saw how poor the reviews were and said “I’ll wait three months until it’s on HBO.”
TREE24K
TREE24K - 4/22/2023, 12:49 PM
I rather enjoyed this movie. Thought it was better than the first. Having said that, I went in with pretty low expectations. I think that helped.
TheNewYorker
TheNewYorker - 4/22/2023, 1:18 PM
@TREE24K - 😂😂
DPSNUMBER1
DPSNUMBER1 - 4/22/2023, 12:53 PM
Well, unlike the opinion of some people here, this film worked for me, could have been better, but it was not atrocious. I understand that the trailer did not any favors for the promotion of this film and that is probably the main reason people were not interested.
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