SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS reactions w/spoilers!

[kcekada]

Nothing against Levi, but he was never a great pick for Cap. I think they made Cap come across as a B character, while he has potential to be an A character. Maybe they'll get it right under Gunn's direction.

[Guy_McNichts]

The Suicide Squad came out at around the same time as the Shang Chi film. Only one month difference. The Suicide Squad made only $169 million earnings against the budget of $185 million

And? I didn't say anything about The Suicide Squad.

Maybe, but you can't discount the fact that it was just a terrible movie. Take the pandemic out of the equation, and all the poor word-of-mouth would've caught up to WW1984 at some point.

Like, no offense, but what arrangement of circumstances could there have been, for WW1984 to be celebrated and hailed as financially successful?

Had there been no pandemic, and WW84 opened as originally planned, it would definitely have had at least a decent opening. There was good will from the first movie and sufficient hype, so it would've gotten a strong opening weekend.
Worth noting its release sparked a good surge in subscriptions to HBO Max, so the audience was there for it.

Beyond that, given the critical response and word of mouth, it probably would've dropped pretty quick depending on what the competition would've been. China's box office would've been a wild card. Maybe they would've liked it, maybe not. They hated the live action Mulan but loved Venom. Came out in droves for Aquaman, but zero interest in any of Star Wars.

WW84 also did well in Blu-Ray sales, so there were people who evidently liked it.

If I had to guess, it would've under-performed, but maybe broke even. But, again, that would depend on other unpredictable factors.

I do think simply writing it off as "it bombed because it was bad" or suggesting its financial failure can be owed to anything other than the pandemic is disingenuous. Worse movies have made more money. Better movies made less.
As I said, nothing was making money in theaters at the time of its release.

[Zauriel]

Just checked Box office mojo for this Tuesday's domestic records. FOTG made $2,401,036 this Tuesday. That's up +42% from the previous day earnings.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/releas...ef_=bo_tt_gr_1

[Wildling]

I liked this more than I expected from the trailer. Absolutely nothing against the actresses playing them but the villain characters here didn't look to me like a Mark Strong Sivana or Mister Mind in terms of wanting me seeing them fight the Shazams. I liked how the movie implies spoilers:

scores of people were killed by the superhuman savage tree monsters, and they only showed you bits of it to not spook you much about it, it reminded me of Sivana's Deadly Sins rampage scene but bigger scale and it sure was more intense than the Black Adam hell fodder scenes.

end of spoilers

[kingaliencracker]

Maybe, but you can't discount the fact that it was just a terrible movie. Take the pandemic out of the equation, and all the poor word-of-mouth would've caught up to WW1984 at some point.

Like, no offense, but what arrangement of circumstances could there have been, for WW1984 to be celebrated and hailed as financially successful?

There was enough good will with the first film for it to have at least made $400-500 million minimum under non-pandemic conditions. Obviously that's my speculation but I think that's a fair estimate.

I don't know if that would have made it a success. But it certainly wouldn't have been the financial disaster it was.

[Wildling]

There was enough good will with the first film for it to have at least made $400-500 million minimum under non-pandemic conditions. Obviously that's my speculation but I think that's a fair estimate.

I don't know if that would have made it a success. But it certainly wouldn't have been the financial disaster it was.

You couldn't convince me Wonder Woman's sequel released in better times and with a full theatrical window, and depending on dates and competition, wouldn't have made numbers at least similar, if not noticeably higher, than Godzilla vs Kong, which debuted when vaccines were already getting out. And keep in mind the previous Godzilla solo movie flopped before the pandemic, and the previous Kong solo movie, while successful, didn't break $600 million, and that was back in 2017. And both of those movies got a big haul from China. Nowadays I doubt Wonder Woman 1984 would have gotten a haul worth much out of China at any time, but that wouldn't have been a concern there because the original Wonder Woman's $821 million total only had $90 million from China included. The rest of the world's good will would have been more than enough to compensate.

[Zauriel]

The SS squad mentioned in the link was the 2016 one that didn't flop. It was a **** movie that did very poorly by most characters. Deadshot was nothing like deadshot from the comics s for starters.

I know what you meant. They made Agent Jimmy Woo look comical in the Ant-Man 2 film. he was nothing like Jimmy Woo in the comics.

[Multiverse]

The whole "Justice Society under Amanda Waller" plot makes me think they are setting up a "Trinity War" style story-line (especially now the team has their very own "Superman"). Justice League VS Justice Society VS Justice League Dark.

I may be pulling at straws with this theory, but considering Waller's actions in Black Adam/ Shazam 2, and Swamp Thing making a cinematic debut soon, I can't help but wonder.

[kidfresh512]

I am never a fan of blaming "fans" for the movie bombing. Marketing or problems with the studio etc. I can get behind. But, it is no fans fault that they were uninterested in seeing your movie. You just didn't do what it takes to sell them on paying to see it, and that would include things like marketing or previous entries in a franchise or universe where they have been burned too many times with paying for subpar material.

[krazijoe]

I liked it! Jusrt as good as the original...I didn't expect to like the new Villains but I did like them. They just fit...Freddie was awesome...Only drawback is that Shazam seemed more like a child than did Billy. Now I REALLY resent The Rock for F'ing all this up. I totally saw him taking that punch instead of the Dragon and Kalypso. They could have been epic but he totally screwed it over because he thought he knew better. I mean, I like(d) the Rock but GRRRRRR! He screwed the POOCH!
Little TIdbits. Liked seeing the TV Shazam in the movie and his Winnebago that got destroyed. LOVED That...Didn't like the Unicorns or Skittles. Loved Darla(both versions). I do wish they played up the family more in the ad's and synopsis which may have brought in more families and people...
WW showing up...Meh...Can't wait to see if he shows up in the Justice Society or Peacemaker.

7 out of 10 for me...Better than Ant-Man and on par with Black Panther 2.

F YOu ROCK!

[Zauriel]

According to Box Office Mojo, Shazam 2's box office records fell to -41.6% this Wednesday. It made only $1,401,116 this Wednesday, about 1 million dollars less than the previous day

[Brian B]

According to Box Office Mojo, Shazam 2's box office records fell to -41.6% this Wednesday. It made only $1,401,116 this Wednesday, about 1 million dollars less than the previous day

It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on Zaslav’s decision to make Gunn and Safran DC Studios heads. No, Gunn isn’t behind Shazam, but Safran is. Shazam’s his. I kind of doubt it will have any effect, given that it’s not part of Gunn’s and Safran’s upcoming slate, really. But, it’s not really an auspicious start.

[Jon-El]

I went to a noon showing today. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a theater this close to empty. I always go to noon showings so there’s never much of a crowd. This was surprising though.

D9EF2F5E-6865-4752-90AD-586A8EF4DB89.jpg

Honestly, I thought the movie was fine. It suffers from the same problem a lot of the recent movies have. They’re just too long. They build to a climax & then there’s a twist & another climax. They just go on forever. I felt the same about Ant Man. Other than that, I mostly enjoyed the movie. It would’ve been interesting to see Shazam / Captain Marvel interact with other heroes. I think the character might work better in that type of setting. It was a fun movie though. No worse than others I’ve seen lately. It’s a shame to think this movie & Black Adam had absolutely no connection. That is so weird.

[Lightning Rider]

My theater was also empty. I thought it was fine but extremely generic.

Positives:
- Seeing the adult forms more was pretty cool
- I liked seeing more magical things in the cave
- Freddy stole the show like in the first film

Negatives:
- I'll never be a fan of the juvenile humor. Levi continues to act 5 years old.
- The theme of Billy being afraid to let go of his family was stated but not really justified. Not convincing.
- The villains' motivation is totally uninteresting. Why show up now? Why did the Wizard take Atlas' power anyway?
- The urban monster-fighting was so uninspired.
- Where is the Justice League while Philadelphia is getting destroyed? Why would Wonder Woman only show up at the end?
- It was indeed too long. I thought it would wrap up about 20 minutes sooner. That Unicorn sequence felt tacked-on.

[GamerSlyRatchet]

- The villains' motivation is totally uninteresting. Why show up now?

Because Billy broke the Wizard's staff in the previous movie. It weakened the barrier between worlds.