Shazam! Fury of the Gods has been a huge box office flop and, as of right now, no one is entirely sure why. A poor marketing campaign won't have helped matters, of course, and neither will the fact this sequel was released nearly four years after its predecessor (which was only a modest box office hit in its own right).
This week, Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson has been blamed for pulling the plug on past crossover plans, but The Rock can take solace in the fact that his movie was still a bigger hit than this one.
After a week of release in U.S. theaters, the Shazam! follow-up has earned a mere $36.6 million. That's an abysmal result, especially when it opened with $30.5 million.
For comparison's sake, this is a whopping -56% behind where Black Adam was at the same point in its release. However, not even Shazam! Fury of the Gods' lower budget will help it reach profitability.
This weekend, the movie is likely to earn less than $13 million and should conclude its domestic run with $75 million. While the Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes is 87%, that's clearly not indicative of actual word of mouth (if it was, the sequel would be performing considerably better, no matter what critics have said).
"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," we said in our review. "It’s just a shame it never quite manages to electrify us in the same way as its predecessor."
Can The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom escape the same fate as this movie? It's going to be a very interesting final year for the DCEU, that's for sure.
Will you be checking out Shazam! Fury of the Gods this weekend if you haven't already?