At this point, it’s safe to call David F. Sandberg‘s “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” a flop.
17.03.2023 - 04:27 / nme.com
DC superhero outing Shazam! Fury Of The Gods hits cinemas this month.Directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out), the sequel sees Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and his foster siblings transform into superheroes once again to take on a new threat in the Daughters of Atlas.Zachary Levi returns as the super-charged alter-ego of Billy, aka Shazam.
Other members of the cast include Adam Brody, Rachel Zegler, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou and Helen Mirren.Shazam! Fury Of The Gods features two scenes during the end credits, one after the mid-credits and another after the rest have rolled. In other words, you’ll want to remain seated.This is only the beginning.
After Shazam, DC has The Flash (June 16), Blue Beetle (August 18) and Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (December 25) on its 2023 release slate.James Gunn recently confirmed he’ll be directing a new Superman film, titled Superman Legacy, for the studio, which will focus on a younger version of the superhero. The film is scheduled to be released in July 2025.Speaking about taking on the character, Gunn said: “I was offered Superman years ago – I initially said no because I didn’t have a way in that felt unique and fun and emotional that gave Superman the dignity he deserved.“Then a bit less than a year ago I saw a way in, in many ways centering around Superman’s heritage – how both his aristocratic Kryptonian parents and his Kansas farmer parents inform who he is and the choices he makes.”In a two-star review of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, NME wrote: “Fury Of The Gods gets a big silly ending which is occasionally fun, but there’s a cheap and clumsy feel to everything – a superhero sequel made in the same vague shape as a dozen others.”
.At this point, it’s safe to call David F. Sandberg‘s “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” a flop.
Dwayne Johnson blocked Black Adam stars from appearing in the post-credits scene of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods.Director David F. Sandberg previously revealed that members of Black Adam‘s Justice Society of America were originally slated to appear in Fury Of The Gods, but that the scene “fell apart three days before we were going to roll cameras,” forcing him to find different characters.On Tuesday (March 21), The Wrap reported that Johnson actively blocked the characters from appearing in the Shazam! sequel, and that he also denied Levi a cameo in Black Adam.In an Instagram story on Tuesday, Levi shared a post mentioning The Wrap’s report and seemingly confirmed it by adding: “The truth shall set you free.”Elsewhere, Levi recently agreed with a tweet suggesting Zack Snyder fans are “happy” that Fury Of The Gods failed at the box office.“There is no denying that at the moment there are many Snyder fans who are happy for the failure of your film and many of them wish that everything that is to come fails just for not continuing with the films of their director,” one fan wrote to Levi on Twitter.“This is also true,” Levi replied in a since deleted tweet.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has failed at the box office.The DC sequel earned $30million (£24million) at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, which is well below the $53million (£44million) the original Shazam! opened with in 2019.Fury Of The Gods cost a reported $110million (£90million) to make and a further $100million (£80million) to market, so the film has recorded a huge loss overall.Levi, who stars as the titular hero in both films, made sure not to blame Snyder fans for the box office failure but acknowledged that many of them would be happy to see the film underperform after Warner Bros. dropped Snyder’s DC Universe.“There is no denying that at the moment there are many Snyder fans who are happy for the failure of your film and many of them wish that everything that is to come fails just for not continuing with the films of their director,” one fan wrote to Levi on Twitter.“This is also true,” Levi replied in a since deleted tweet.
Zachary Levi is commenting on the report that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson blocked his character Black Adam from appearing in an end credits scene for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
If you don’t follow David F. Sandberg on social media, you definitely should.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods.The DC sequel, which sees Zachary Levi return as the titular hero and also features Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as villains, currently has a rotten critic score of 53 per cent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The film has, however, faired much better with audiences, with a current score of 87 per cent.Reacting to the ratings, Sandberg tweeted a thread on Monday (March 20), explaining that would be temporarily be leaving superhero films behind to instead focus on horror projects and other new ideas.“On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film,” he tweeted alongside a shrugging emoji.“I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film.
David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods was released and the director is opening up about the heavy criticism against the DC film.
The marketing push for “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” has been an odd one, no doubt. The questions about the film’s future amid the soft reboot from new DC Studios co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, dominated the discourse.
The gods are looking furious indeed.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Shazam wasn’t the magic word at the weekend box office. “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” opened to No. 1 in North America, but the Warner Bros. and DC Comics sequel fell short of expectations with its disappointing $30.5 million debut from 4,071 theaters. Heading into the weekend, the film was expected to collect $35 million to $40 million, which already wasn’t all that spectacular since it cost north of $110 million to make and another $100 millions more to market. It’s a substantial drop from 2019’s “Shazam,” the first comic book installment starring Zachary Levi’s quirky hero, which opened to $53.5 million and ended its box office run with $140 million domestically and $366 million globally. It’s also one of the worst starts in the DC Cinematic Universe, other than pandemic-era releases like “Wonder Woman 1984” ($16.7 million) and “The Suicide Squad” ($26 million), which both opened simultaneously on HBO Max.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” currently playing in theaters. Zachary Levi returns as Billy Baston/Shazam in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” In the DC superhero sequel, a trio of vindictive sorceresses called the Daughters of Atlas — led by Helen Mirren as Hespera, Lucy Liu as Kalypso and Rachel Zegler as Anthea — want to avenge their father and take back the power of the gods they believe was stolen from Shazam and his crew. David F. Sandberg directs and, in true superhero style, peppers easter eggs throughout the film for the most eagle-eyed superhero fans.
When New Line/DC’s Shazam: Fury of the Gods hit tracking four weeks ago with a low $35M projection, it was shocking and not shocking to rival distributors. Shocking, because in a spring full of franchise tentpoles, many of which are seeing record opening domestic highs, how can a DC property like Shazam! not keep up with the pack? Not shocking in that — well, it’s a goofy, old Shazam!
Zachary Levi is responding to commentary surrounding the end credits scenes in Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
After that Superman fake-out in the first movie, director David F. Sandberg knew that if he was going to pull off another DC cameo in the sequel, it would have to be for real this time.And he pulled it off! Just as all hope seemed lost in the final act, Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), appeared to save Shazam (Zachary Levi) and leave her favorite fanboy swooning.«We wanted to poke fun at the first movie where we had to obscure Superman’s face,» Sandberg told ET's Ash Crossan ahead of the film's release. «On this one, I actually didn't believe it was going to happen, because she was in the script from day one but… Gal couldn't be there [for some of the filming] so we had to do it with a stand in.
New Line’s DC sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods got off the ground at 3 p.m. Thursday and posted $3.4M in previews at 3,400 theaters.
One of the things that made “Shazam!” so engaging, entertaining, and different was that it brought humor, an endearing irreverence, and an exploration and development of character that satisfied the initiated but also drew in the unfamiliar. It felt natural, full of vigor, and inspired.
The Shazamily is back, and on a much larger scale, but at its heart this superhero saga is still about family, and that’s the good thing here.
In the pantheon of DC superhero movies, David F. Sandberg’s “Shazam!” still stands out as something special: an emotional, character-driven film with good humor and an actual point to make that never let flashy spectacle get in the way of telling a wonderful, personal story.It would be nice to report that the sequel, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” follows in that tradition.
“Shazam: Fury of Gods” is anticipated to overtake “Scream VI” and rule the box office this week, but the total gross won’t shatter any records.
New Line’s Covid-delayed DC sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods finally will hit theaters this weekend in 77 offshore territories and the U.S. with a global outlook between $80M-$85M — $35M of that coming from domestic.