SHAZAM! Movie Reactions and SPOILER thread!

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Here's some very early box office results for Shazam's opening weekend. This is from Deadline, and it's nice to see the press get behind a DCEU movie. It seems the industry writers know that Shazam is a smaller budgeted picture so there seems to be a rooting factor for it to succeed given how good the reviews are.

FRIDAY 11:44PM UPDATE:
After showing exhibitors at CinemaCon that they are indeed the force to be reckoned with, especially with upcoming DC pics like Birds of Prey, The Joker and Wonder Woman 1984, Warner Bros. heads into this weekend celebrating a No. 1 win for its comic book label’s Shazam! with current Friday night estimates seeing $20M (including $5.9M Thursday previews) for a weekend of $51.5M.

We continue to hear that the New Line production is hooking a late night crowd well before Saturday matinees kick in. Some industry projections think Billy Batson can do the same amount of money on Saturday as Friday (including previews).
Courtesy of Disney

This is all very reminiscent of Disney/Marvel’s Ant-Man, when they decided to expand beyond their older fanboys into families.

Overall CinemaScore for Shazam! is a solid A, like Ant-Man and Wonder Woman, but better than Aquaman‘s A-, Justice League and Suicide Squad‘s B+ and Batman v. Superman‘s B. In Screen Engine/ComScore PostTrak exits, Shazam! drew 25% under 18, with males under/over 25 essentially equal at 33%. Kids and parents combined repped 25% of the audience and both gave this superhero Big-liked pic 4 1/2 stars each. Kids under 12 give it a 72% recommend, while general audiences enjoyed Billy Batson at 4 stars, 61% recommend. Diversity breakdown was 53% Caucasian, 17% Hispanic, 13% Asian and 11% African American. All super stats.
Many B.O. analysts had a feeling that Shazam! would over-index due to what they were seeing on social media. RelishMix reports that the viral rate of four trailers for the superhero pic stands at 129:1, “far and above the superhero standard of 37:1.”

In regards to the positive word of mouth for Shazam! RelishMix says folks online “are shouting that it’s by far the best DC film so far, very funny and entertaining. Some even compare it to Captain Marvel saying this is the movie they were hoping for. There’s an ongoing feud between Marvel & DC Fans related to the very name, Captain Marvel'” Shazam was renamed and formerly known as Captain Marvel despite being a DC character/hero. Regardless, others are intrigued by leading man Zachary Levi, and like what they see in Mark Strong as the villain – and are loving how the trailers worked in the Eminem song.”

A lot of that WOM was spurred by Warner Bros/New Line advance screenings for the film (both free and paid screenings through Fandango which rang up a record $3.3M next to other family film/partnership screenings). Add that into the 3-day and the running stateside total is $56.1M. Nancy’s sources say Shazam‘s foreign B.O. should definitely cross $100M.

https://deadline.com/2019/04/shazam-...ry-1202589627/

Once we get better Friday estimates, we'll see if things change. If Shazam gets over $50 million for the weekend, it will have beaten the projections. Not by much, but good for a headline.

Shazam is definitely a movie that will heavily depend on word of mouth in order to make its box office.

[Jim Kelly]

I think the bad mother angle was to divert from the dead mother cliché. Plus to emphasize family isn't just who you're related to by blood.

But it seemed so obvious that this was being written onto the character, to hammer home that message and force the narrative, that it took me out of the movie for a few seconds. Instead of feeling bad for Billy, I was feeling anger at the writers.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

Now that I've had some time to think about things regarding the way Shazam has been marketed, I wonder if the general public even knew that Shazam was a real superhero film.

Is it possible, based on the trailers and images we've seen (like Captain Marvel blowing bubble gum and using an I-Phone) that the average moviegoer just thought that Shazam was a superhero parody like 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend or others of this type?

Maybe that's why the movie will "only" open at around $50 million. It's possible that Warners was so desperate to assure people that this wasn't a Zack Snyder film that they leaned too heavily into the comedy and so it became something ignorable to a lot of moviegoers.

What has been your experience with non-comics fans and how they perceived Shazam? Did they see it as a successor to Aquaman and Wonder Woman or did they see it as a comedic parody of superheroes -- a glorified Saturday Night Live sketch?

[AJBopp]

I wonder if the general public even knew that Shazam was a real superhero film.

Is it possible, based on the trailers and images we've seen (like Captain Marvel blowing bubble gum and using an I-Phone) that the average moviegoer just thought that Shazam was a superhero parody like 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend or others of this type?

I have no empirical evidence one way or the other, but based on the trailers I find it hard to imagine people thought this was not a real superhero film. It's more likely they were confused about what sort of superhero film it was...perhaps Hancock is a better analogy.

[stargazer01]

I think the bad mother angle was to divert from the dead mother cliché. Plus to emphasize family isn't just who you're related to by blood.

I agree. Personally, I really liked that his mother was so flawed and selfish, because that's part of real life for forter kids, unfortunately. It was heart-wrenching to see, but that sadness gave Billy more depth as a character, IMO, and it also showed what kind of person he really was because despite his broken heart and disappointment, he still went to save his friends and family. This tragedy gave the film more dramatic weight for me. The rooftop scene was more powerful due to that. I'm glad that story point wasn't fixed with a happy bow, at least not so soon. Maybe in the future the mother looks for him to ask forgiveness.

Now that I've had some time to think about things regarding the way Shazam has been marketed, I wonder if the general public even knew that Shazam was a real superhero film.

Is it possible, based on the trailers and images we've seen (like Captain Marvel blowing bubble gum and using an I-Phone) that the average moviegoer just thought that Shazam was a superhero parody like 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend or others of this type?

Maybe that's why the movie will "only" open at around $50 million. It's possible that Warners was so desperate to assure people that this wasn't a Zack Snyder film that they leaned too heavily into the comedy and so it became something ignorable to a lot of moviegoers.

What has been your experience with non-comics fans and how they perceived Shazam? Did they see it as a successor to Aquaman and Wonder Woman or did they see it as a comedic parody of superheroes -- a glorified Saturday Night Live sketch?

You have a point. Too much comedy probably put some off. The trailer should have focused more on the magical part and his hero journey and remind us more of harry potter.

[anyajenkins]

I've been saying this for the longest time, but apparently the honchos at DC are stuck on the idea that he should be called Shazam. Maybe that's what DiDio and Johns called him in their respective childhoods.

I don’t know the legal situation for the movie, but calling him captain marvel wouldn’t have helped the movie. The audience would have thought it was wierd. If it had been made and released before marvel’s captain marvel, it might have worked, but it wasn’t.

[kingaliencracker]

Now that I've had some time to think about things regarding the way Shazam has been marketed, I wonder if the general public even knew that Shazam was a real superhero film.

Is it possible, based on the trailers and images we've seen (like Captain Marvel blowing bubble gum and using an I-Phone) that the average moviegoer just thought that Shazam was a superhero parody like 2006's My Super Ex-Girlfriend or others of this type?

Maybe that's why the movie will "only" open at around $50 million. It's possible that Warners was so desperate to assure people that this wasn't a Zack Snyder film that they leaned too heavily into the comedy and so it became something ignorable to a lot of moviegoers.

What has been your experience with non-comics fans and how they perceived Shazam? Did they see it as a successor to Aquaman and Wonder Woman or did they see it as a comedic parody of superheroes -- a glorified Saturday Night Live sketch?

The movie was only made on a $100 million budget, so it'll be a hit for WB. It also doesn't have a lot of competition between now and Endgame, and with it's critical as well as audience response through the roof I wouldn't stress to much about it's box office performance.

[dreyga2000]

I think the bad mother angle was to divert from the dead mother cliché. Plus to emphasize family isn't just who you're related to by blood.

Personally, I loved it. It really tied the whole family and being chosen theme together very well while simultaneously sidestepping any cliches. A the hard cold adult truth of his mother contrasted well with cheerful kidful tone of the rest of movie. I generally applaud Sandberg for this. Brilliant decision.

[Buried Alien]

Wisdom of Solomon: Billy realized Envy being the weak link and goading it out to face him directly, which enabled him to trap the Seven Deadly Sins. That was both the Wisdom of Solomon and Billy's formidable native smarts.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[kingaliencracker]

Personally, I loved it. It really tied the whole family and being chosen theme together very well while simultaneously sidestepping any cliches. A the hard cold adult truth of his mother contrasted well with cheerful kidful tone of the rest of movie. I generally applaud Sandberg for this. Brilliant decision.

My only issue with it was where the resolution was placed in the film. Had the scene occurred earlier in the movie it would have made more sense. Placing it right before the climax was a bit off for me.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I have to agree about the mother also.

In comics, Billy is never reunited with his mother. In the Golden Age, his parents were dead, and Billy grew up on the streets selling newspapers. So, even though Captain Marvel was a lighthearted strip, if you thought too much about it (and granted, Golden Age comics were written in such a way that you didn't think too much about things), there was tragedy at its core -- as there was with Superman and Batman.

Anyway, I'm GLAD that Sandberg didn't do the warm and fuzzy reunion with his mother, and I'm VERY glad that he didn't go for the easy cop out and make his mother's rejection some part of a supervillain plot. The mother storyline was not meant to be comicbooky. I was actually quite surprised when Billy really found his mother in the first movie, but was STILL basically an orphan who needed a foster family.

The more I think about it, the more I like it, and that's why I wish, as I stated in an earlier post, that they tugged on the heartstrings even more at the end when he accepts his foster family. I think the Billy Batson foster family aspect to the character really makes Shazam so different as compared to the standard superhero movie out there. It really occupies its own space. This is one thing DC Films has done really well. All of its characters are interesting outside of their costumes and have fully developed worlds of their own beyond the shared universe stuff.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

The movie was only made on a $100 million budget, so it'll be a hit for WB. It also doesn't have a lot of competition between now and Endgame, and with it's critical as well as audience response through the roof I wouldn't stress to much about it's box office performance.

I have to admit I'm a bit of a box office wonk, so I will be following this, but hopefully not stressing about it.

I also agree that Shazam will have made most of its box office by Endgame anyway. Endgame opens during Shazam's 4th weekend. This is Captain Marvel's 4th weekend, and even that movie is "only" estimated to end up with $10 million by end-Sunday.

I'm hoping that Shazam can have great word of mouth when people go back to work on Monday, which will lead to strong performance during the coming week and a strong hold for its second weekend.

This coming week and the 2nd weekend will tell the tale of how successful Shazam will ultimately be.

[kingaliencracker]

I have to admit I'm a bit of a box office wonk, so I will be following this, but hopefully not stressing about it.

I also agree that Shazam will have made most of its box office by Endgame anyway. Endgame opens during Shazam's 4th weekend. This is Captain Marvel's 4th weekend, and even that movie is "only" estimated to end up with $10 million by end-Sunday.

I'm hoping that Shazam can have great word of mouth when people go back to work on Monday, which will lead to strong performance during the coming week and a strong hold for its second weekend.

This coming week and the 2nd weekend will tell the tale of how successful Shazam will ultimately be.

Well, there's different expectations for Captain Marvel vs. Shazam. Had Captain Marvel only made $51 million its opening weekend, there's no question that would have been seen as a major disappointment. Captain Marvel benefits from the MCU, in that even if the MCU were to make a terrible film, it's still a virtual lock to make over $500 million at the box office.

Now, I do agree that if Shazam were to suffer a significant drop in its second weekend, say 60% or more, then there would be cause for concern. But again, I think given its modest budget it'll be hard for the movie at this point to be a flop, bomb, or major disappointment.

[Colossus1980]

Just saw this movie and I enjoyed it. Nice dumb juvenile fun. A bit sad watching this because I would have loved to see Levi with the original JL cast, especially Erza Miller. I know the DCEU is focusing on the solo franchises but I still want to see the heroes interact with each other. Miller and Levi would have been great together IMO.

Did anyone think Darla would make a good Moon Girl?

[Colossus1980]

This coming week and the 2nd weekend will tell the tale of how successful Shazam will ultimately be.

It's going to wipe the floor with Hellboy.