By now it’s no secret that ‘Shazam! The fury of the gods’ It has been a box office flop as superhero movies have not suffered for a long time. Even considering ‘Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ as a flop (it’s still the highest grossing movie of the year), the DC movie has exceeded any downward expectations… and the proof is that from the first to the second week it has suffered one of the worst drops in DCU history.
In the superheroic pit
Usually, superhero movies can be expected to drop around 60% at the box office after their first week in the United States: the hype has passed, the captive audience has already left and those who prefer to see them without the halls full of fans remain. Some falls have been absolutely disastrous: ‘Quantumania’, for example, lost 69.9% of what was collected the previous week‘X-men: Dark Phoenix’ 71.5% and ‘Batman V Superman’ 69.1%.
‘Shazam! The fury of the gods’ has not been such a serious case in percentage, but it has been in money. The fall has been 68%, which is somewhat mitigated because worldwide it has exceeded 100 million dollars and is placed, for the moment, as the sixth highest grossing film of the year, but clearly DC and Warner expected much more.
Zachary Levi, the star of the film, who made headlines this week after complaining about Dwayne Johnson’s attitude, has appeared on camera to deny that he blames the actor for the box office of his sequel: “People were like, ‘Oh, what are you doing? You’re trying to blame this guy because your movie isn’t doing well.’ Listen, I didn’t blame anyone. There is not a single person that I have blamed for how our movie has gone.“. It does not seem, however, that The Rock and Levi are going to be friends again anytime soon. And that they have to have little battles to tell.
In Espinof | Why ‘Shazam!’ It’s the best DC Comics superhero movie in 40 years.