SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS Bombs During Second Weekend...And There's Bad News For The ANT-MAN Threequel Too

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS Bombs During Second Weekend...And There's Bad News For The ANT-MAN Threequel Too

It was not a good weekend for Marvel or DC as Shazam! Fury of the Gods found itself gunned down by John Wick: Chapter 4, while Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania looks to end its run with a whimper...

By JoshWilding - Mar 27, 2023 08:03 AM EST

John Wick: Chapter 4 arrived in theaters this weekend and, as expected, it completely obliterated Shazam! Fury of the Gods at the North American box office.

Debuting with a massive $73.5 million, the movie also earned $64 million overseas for a global start of $137.5 million. It's been a big few days for Lionsgate, but a weekend to forget for the DCEU. With a -68% drop, the Shazam! sequel made only $12.1 million, for a U.S. total of $56.1 million and, even more disappointingly, $102.4 million worldwide. 

Somehow, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has ended up being an even bigger flop than Black Adam and this is a dreadful start to the year for a shared world that's already on its last legs. 

Will The Flash fare any better? While plenty of praise is being heaped on that movie, controversies continue to surround lead star Ezra Miller and, now everyone knows a reboot in on the way, it too could struggle to find an audience. As for Fury of the Gods, a week of what can best be described as whining from the movie's cast and director can't have exactly helped matters.

It's not just the DCEU that's having a rough time of it, however. 

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania limped to $209.9 million at the end of its sixth weekend, and with $470 million worldwide, it's not even close to matching its predecessors. Ant-Man earned $519 million, while Ant-Man and The Wasp followed with $622 million. 

Needless to say, between these numbers and Disney CEO Bob Iger's recent comments, we don't anticipate there being another Ant-Man movie. 

In our review of that movie, we said: "Despite being an example of why a movie shouldn’t be shot almost entirely in The Volume, every time Jonathan Majors steps on screen as Kang, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is an epic tale to astonish and a monumental chapter in the Multiverse Saga."

As for the Shazam! sequel we wrapped that verdict up with: "Despite lacking so much of what made Shazam! great, there’s plenty of fun to be had with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, a movie that serves as a reminder the DCEU wasn’t all bad. It’s just a shame it never quite manages to electrify us in the same way as its predecessor."

What do you watch in theaters this weekend?

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ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA Actually Did Turn A Profit... Of Around $88K

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TheOverseer
TheOverseer - 3/27/2023, 8:31 AM
Wonderful news, garbage movies should bomb and bomb hard!
AllsGood
AllsGood - 3/27/2023, 8:32 AM
Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Jacory
Jacory - 3/27/2023, 8:33 AM
Is the new Ant-Man movie a flop? Will it not break even at least?
Scarilian
Scarilian - 3/27/2023, 9:03 AM
@Jacory -
No, it's a box office bomb and a franchise killer because there's zero chance the Ant-Man property will look good to investors seeing this drop below the first despite inflation.

No, It won't break even. Disney usually gets 60% of the box office which means to break-even it'd need around $650m. It's why Disney were so obviously desperate to try to market this film as being 'the most important movie since Endgame' because they needed the audience to love this movie, its characters and they needed it to perform better than the previous movie due to the increased budget.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 3/27/2023, 8:33 AM
Well, neither movie really seems to offer anything unique that makes me wanna watch either ASAP. And I'm probably not the only one that thinks so.

I'm sure they're fun, but in today's superhero movie landscape that is not enough for me anymore. Same reason I'm gonna skip Flash, The Marvels and Aquaman in theatres.
defenderofthefaith
defenderofthefaith - 3/27/2023, 8:37 AM
So out come the doom sayers claiming Superhero movies are over. So Marvel had one movie under perform. I bet that won't happen with Guardians. Just like it didn't with Black Panther, Thor, Dr. Strange or Spiderman. As for Shazam, well DC has been under performing with most of it's releases so no surprise there. Let's see how they do with their reboot.
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 3/27/2023, 9:01 AM
@defenderofthefaith - One movie? lol.

Black Widow - $200 million budget, $379 mill WW boxoffice
Shang Chi - $150-$200 mill budget, $432 mill WW boxoffice
Eternals - $200 mill budget, $402 boxoffice
Spider-Man NWH, yeah it made a lot of money, but Sony kept most of it.

Dr. Strange, not a bomb
Thor: Dumb and Dumber, made its money back but is universally hated.
Wakanda Forever: not a bomb, but it didn't come close to making what it's predecessor did.

These weren't the results Marvel/Disney was hoping for. Of all those movies, only one was a real success in that it made a shit ton of money and was universally loved, but most of the success went to Sony.
defenderofthefaith
defenderofthefaith - 3/27/2023, 9:24 AM
@IronMan616 - see, this is the dumbness I am talking about. The 3 examples here are all from the pandemic era. Movies that made nearly as much as Ant-Man 3 in a pandemic. That is what this person uses for examples of flopping. Lol. All those pandemic movies did really well considering most people wouldn't go to theaters at the time as well as China not releasing them. And then brings up Black Panther and Thor not making as much but omitting the fact that both movies made more money in the countries they were allowed to be released in then the previous movies and would've made more period had China and other countries that didn't release them had. I'm sorry but your comment is amazingly dumb and you don't paint the whole picture.
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 3/27/2023, 9:37 AM
@defenderofthefaith - Pandemic or not, the fact is that's what those movies cost and that's what those movies made. Did they recoup that lost money in another way?

They may have made a lot of money in those countries, but how much does the studio get from those countries?

You call my post dumb, but you're the emotional one not looking at the facts. Tell me how those pandemic movies made their money back. Tell me Marvel is thinking, ah it's ok, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but that's cool, it was the pandemic.
defenderofthefaith
defenderofthefaith - 3/27/2023, 9:53 AM
@IronMan616 - lol. The pandemic movies would've made their money back had they not been released during a pandemic. The good showing despite the pandemic attests to that. Many companies outside of the movie industry lost lots of money during the pandemic. Restaurants, Hotels, Hair Salons, Car Rentals, etc. It was unavoidable. People were not allowed and did not go out. So all those businesses are bad because too because they lost lots of money during a pandemic? Stop with the dumbness. It was a bad time for people and everything was effected by it. No one wants to lose money but during a time like that you try your best even though you know the results will still result in a loss. You minimize the damage
And who cares how much studios make from those other countries, it still counts toward the box office total just like all the other movies totals It's funny that you call Thor Dumb and Dumber. Shows a real juvenile attitude.
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 3/27/2023, 10:19 AM
@defenderofthefaith - Coulda woulda shoulda.
Did Marvel lose money with Black Widow, Shang Chi and the Eternals Yes or No? And if you say they didn't, then post how they recouped that money.

What do you mean who cares? I bet Marvel cares how much they're getting back.
defenderofthefaith
defenderofthefaith - 3/27/2023, 10:44 AM
@IronMan616 - lol. All I can do is laugh at you. Your takes just totally disregard the events that caused your claims. You have your little agenda to stick to and you seem hell bent to keep it no matter how foolish it makes you look.
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 3/27/2023, 10:58 AM
@defenderofthefaith - Did they or didn't they lose money? Answer the question.
defenderofthefaith
defenderofthefaith - 3/27/2023, 11:12 AM
@IronMan616 - Almost all movies released during the pandemic lost money. That is not an indication of whether the movie was liked or not. But according to you all those movies were flops because they lost money too. Look, your comments are nonsense and I will not respond to anymore of your foolishness.
BringFFtoMCU
BringFFtoMCU - 3/27/2023, 8:37 AM
Bob Iger is taking notes and will NOT allow the MCU to fall into irrelevance. Not so sure about James Gunn yet.

Quality > quantity
DocSpock
DocSpock - 3/27/2023, 8:38 AM


I liked Ant-Man 3. 3/5 stars. But I do recognize all of its flaws.

I found Shazam 2 to be lame & generic with few good moments. 1.5/5 stars.

The MCU needs something great in its next 2-3 movies or there will be severe repercussions, I think.

The DCFU is just a big dead fish waiting for the sea gulls to finish off the scraps.

bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 3/27/2023, 8:40 AM
@DocSpock - luckily Guardians of the Galaxy is up next. We atleast know Gunn can deliver on that front.

And I think Secret Invasion is also gonna be great, but that's not a movie so I'm not sure if that counts in your metric.
DocSpock
DocSpock - 3/27/2023, 8:46 AM
@bkmeijer1 -

I hope you are right. I think the most important thing is for Cap NWO & Thunderbolts to deliver BIG time.



bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 3/27/2023, 8:53 AM
@DocSpock - I really hope Secret Invasion, New World Order and Thunderbolts can all replicate that Winter Solder thunder.

Just either movie will though, but I remain hopeful
elgaz
elgaz - 3/27/2023, 8:39 AM
I think there's a certain amount of superhero fatigue setting in now. Even amongst more enthuastic fans. I've seen all the DC/Marvel films to date and love the whole genre, but I struggled through Black Adam and I'm not feeling particularly motivated to go and see Shazam either - I feel there's so many now that average ones will struggle to succeed, unlike 15 years ago when there was only a handful of modern era Superhero movies - not to mention widely accessible superhero TV shows also diluting the movie experience a little.
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