Shazam! Fury of the Gods felt the fury of the marketplace in its theatrical debut this weekend. The New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. superhero movie opened to a disappointing $30.5 million from 4,071 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, the AP reports. The Shazam! sequel fell short of its modest expectations ($35 million) as well as the first film in the series ($53.5 million in April 2019), and earned a place on the very low end of modern DC comics movie launches, between Birds of Prey ($33 million in February 2020) and The Suicide Squad ($26.2 million in August 2021), both of which were rated R. Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! Fury of the Gods brought back Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Adam Brody, and added Helen Mirren, Rachel Zegler, and Lucy Liu.
Critics, many of whom found the first film charming, were largely underwhelmed by this outing. It currently holds a 53% Rotten Tomatoes critic score. Audiences were more positive, giving it a B+ CinemaScore overall. Younger crowds were even more favorable. Shazam! Fury of the Gods cost a reported $125 million to produce, not factoring in marketing and promotion costs. Internationally, it grossed $35 million from 77 overseas markets including China, bringing total earnings to $65.5 million. Following its Oscar sweep last Sunday, A24 added over 1,000 screens for an encore Everything Everywhere All At Once, where it earned an additional $1.2 million. The Whale, for which Brendan Fraser won best actor, played on 509 screens and made $145,230.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods, $30.5 million.
- Scream VI, $17.5 million.
- Creed III, $15.4 million.
- 65, $5.8 million.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, $4.1 million.
- Cocaine Bear, $3.9 million.
- Jesus Revolution, $3.5 million.
- Champions, $3 million.
- Avatar: The Way of Water, $1.9 million.
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, $1.5 million.
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