Shazam! Fury of the Gods opened about a month ago. It opened with 30 million at number 1. In its second week it plummeted 69%, a very steep drop even for superhero movies. Currently Shazam! Fury of the Gods has amassed 56 million domestically as of the Box Office dated April 7^th-9^th. The first Shazam! finished its box office run with 140 million domestically. It was also well received and came out after Justice League and Aquaman. We all know how Justice League played out and Aquaman was a huge financial hit. Given the fact Shazam! was not as known compared to some of the other DC characters it was quite an accomplishment that it did as well as it did. I originally thought Shazam! Fury of the Gods would easily surpass the first one. What went wrong?

There are some Spoilers throughout.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a solid movie. I think it’s just as good as the first one if not better. The movie is a lot of fun. This year has been a bit tough for superhero movies so far. Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania was not as big as expected. It is a few million short of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Other threequels such as Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Iron Man 3, and Avengers: Infinity War all surpassed their predecessors. Has superhero fatigue finally set in? I think it is too early to say. Let’s see how the rest of the slate does this year before saying its superhero fatigue. If similar results happen with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, then we can revisit superhero fatigue.

Before opening, Shazam! had a few things going against it, mainly the announcement of the DCU which will reboot the DCEU universe into a cohesive world across film, television, and video games. Because Shazam! is linked to the DECEU, there has been a question if the film even matters. It seems a fair amount of people did not show up for the movie because they felt it was irrelevant now that the DCU is on the horizon. They did not want to invest in something that would not be fulfilled similar to a fair amount of DC properties specifically Zack Snyder’s movies. Wonder Woman 3 is in flux right now since Patty Jenkins departed and there has not been an official announcement on the status of Wonder Woman. Ben Affleck’s Batman movie never happened. The Cyborg movie was cancelled. Zack Snyder’s Justice League will never get resolved. Audiences have been burned a decent amount over the years. They have been let down. The Flash is said to reboot the world. Not much has been said about Aquaman 2. There have been reports that Ben Affleck will appear in that which would mark his final time as Batman presuming he is not cut out of the movie.

Another big factor for Shazam! is Black Adam. In the comics Black Adam and Shazam! are archrivals. Black Adam came out last fall and starred Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam. Plans for Black Adam 2 seem to be on hold. Black Adam set up a lot of things for the future which now seem obsolete. A more recent example of investing in something that is not going to come to fruition. There have been reports that Dwayne Johnson refused to cameo in Shazam! 2. The director David F. Sandberg said there were never plans to have Black Adam in this movie because they wanted a different type of antagonist instead of someone else with the same powers as Shazam. There were also reports that the mid-credit scene was supposed to feature different characters from Black Adam, but Dwayne Johnson refused to let the other characters appear in the movie which led to a last minute change. Two different characters appeared instead.

Those who saw the movie are worried that the credit scenes will end up not paying off because of the restructuring at DC Studios. The mid-credit scene set things up for Shazam that we may never see happen. The end credit scene revisited a credit scene from the first movie which now seems like that will never lead into anything if there is not a Shazam! 3.

Zachary Levi, who stars as Shazam, said in an interview that he feels the marketing is the main reason why the film has not done as well. He feels the movie is a great movie for families to go together. The marketing has not really pushed that aspect. Another thing that I think may have hurt the movie is the marketing spoiled a big cameo in a TV spot. Once I saw headlines that mentioned that I deliberately did not watch the commercial so I could be surprised. A fun thing about the DC and Marvel Movies and other big franchises are the surprises. After seeing the movie, it seems that there were not many surprises since a lot of it was mentioned ahead of time. The credit scenes were mildly surprising. However, there were reports that certain characters would appear in the movie which they did in the credit scene. Before Black Adam was released, it was revealed that Henry Cavill would return as Superman. When that mid-credit scene aired it was not a surprise. This is the second consecutive DC movie to spoil a big reveal prior to the release.

Speaking of Superman, that may have been a reason why some people chose not to see Shazam! 2. It was a big deal when Henry Cavill returned on the big screen as Superman and it was setting up a future for him. A month after Black Adam opened it was revealed that Superman would be recast for the DCU and Henry Cavill would no longer be playing the role. That added to another example of something being set up and not going anywhere. Superman had a cameo in the first Shazam! minus Henry Cavill. It was Superman’s torso, we got to see. There were rumors prior to Black Adam coming out, about Superman actually appearing this time around. That did not happen, but he was referenced in the movie. Shazam! was always a bit of a question in terms of how did it fit in the bigger picture. There were references to the Justice League but for the most part the film stood on its own. Fury of the Gods still stands on its own but there are references to the Justice League heroes as well as a cameo by a Justice League member. That pretty much confirms that Shazam is part of the world that Zack Snyder created.

James Gunn currently has said there could still be a future for Shazam and Zachary Levi as the character. No official announcements regarding that have been made. James Gunn recently responded to a fan that there was no truth to the rumors that Zachary Levi had been recast in the role.

Could there still be a Shazam 3? I think that will be up to James Gunn and Peter Safran, the Co-CEOS of the DCU. The cast still wants to do it. There is a lot of ground left to cover. James Gunn has slowly been revealing updates for the DCU. Already, we have gotten confirmation that Viola Davis, Sean Gunn, Steve Agee, and John Cena will be keeping their respective roles from the DCEU. Anything is possible. We just have to wait and see. It seems a lot of people did not want to invest in Fury of the Gods if there would not be a Shazam 3 or another project for the character to appear in. I think once Fury of the Gods hits home media and streaming people may start to feel more comfortable checking it out. I also think once an official announcement is made in regards to the future of the character that will go a long way.