Warner Bros.
“The Fury of the Gods” may not be so furious. Warner Bros. and DC’s “Shazam” sequel took off with a $3.4 million Thursday opening at the domestic box office, behind the original film’s 2019 preview.
The sequel to Zachary Levi’s superhero film will land with a smaller opening than its predecessor. The first “Shazam” film had a $5.9 million Thursday opening before opening with $53.5 million in April 2019. It grossed $140 million domestically and $366 million globally.
However, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” is only expected to bring in $35 million to $40 million. Each of the “Shazam” movies cost $100 million to produce, but that’s a significant drop from the original.
David F. Sandberg returned to direct “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” the second adventure of young Billy Batson, who can turn into a superhero by saying the word “Shazam.” Billy and his foster siblings, who also have Shazam powers, must battle the Atlas Daughters, played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler. The cast also includes Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ross Butler, Djimon Hounsou and more.
In his review for Varietychief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote, “The villains are vanquished, the mythology is fulfilled, but the real story here is that a superhero saga that seemed to hold room for life-size weirdness and joy ends up being squashed into the shape of any other superhero franchise. The power that does that is the true power to be defeated.”
Despite the lukewarm reviews, “Shazam” is expected to beat last week’s box office champ “Scream VI” and is the only new wide release this weekend.