Shazam Shazam: Fury of the Gods General News and Discussion Thread

[dhandler01]

But wouldnt that be as much on the director as the studio? This is literally the first I have heard of that...

 

[kguillou]

I think everybody''s in agreement the marketing did a crap job selling the film.

 

[Iceman]

For both films IMO.

 

[Nemeres]

I feel the movie misused the good stuff about the first film. For my money, that was a) Shazam & Freddy; and b) the family stuff with the kids. Here, most of the siblings scenes show them as their super-adult counterparts rather than as kids (I barely remember seeing Darla or Eugene, or much of Billy for that matter). And the Shazam/Freddy friendship was a little sidelined.

I remember a lot of magical plot with the castle and whatnot, but little of the fun little scenes at school or around Philly from Shazam 1. The subplot of Billy being afraid he'll age out of the family was interesting, but it only came back briefly at the end. Maybe I'll like it more next time, but it felt less focused for sure.

 

[Moncton]

I feel the movie misused the good stuff about the first film. For my money, that was a) Shazam & Freddy; and b) the family stuff with the kids. Here, most of the siblings scenes show them as their super-adult counterparts rather than as kids (I barely remember seeing Darla or Eugene, or much of Billy for that matter). And the Shazam/Freddy friendship was a little sidelined.

I remember a lot of magical plot with the castle and whatnot, but little of the fun little scenes at school or around Philly from Shazam 1. The subplot of Billy being afraid he'll age out of the family was interesting, but it only came back briefly at the end. Maybe I'll like it more next time, but it felt less focused for sure.

Exactly this, for all the talk about how this is supposedly a family film there is very little family dynamic in it. It is basically just a regular bunch of people with superpowers fighting bad guys film.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

I guess this is easy to say in hindsight...
(as they didn't suspect it would under preform as much as it did)

there probably should have been some clues that it would, but, still

I almost feel like they should have...

Spoiler

vetoed, the Wonder Woman ending, and just let him die...

I know that sounds kinda harsh, and would have been a rather dramatic, for what was a other wise known to be family friendly/comedic genre film

an I know that they always like to keep these films open ended

Spoiler

but, with a sequel at this point looking unlikely, it would have at least been a poetic ending... and they could have just kept the WW footage in the archives as a possible way to bring him back if a sequel ever came along

it's just such a cliche in the superhero movies

Spoiler

A sacrifice means nothing, if your just going to bring them back a minute later

 

[Detective Conan]

Damn…

 

[JannTosh]

DC to Marvel - “when they go low, we go lower”

 

[Comicbookguy339]

72% second weekend drop after a pitiful 30M opening weekend is indescribably bad.

The only modern comic book superhero movies it's beating in ww gross are Catwoman and Elektra.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Honestly, I think greenlighting a Shazam sequel was probably a mistake. Its not like the first one's box office was massive even if it did well enough to be a hit.

 

[DyeLorean]

Honestly, I think greenlighting a Shazam sequel was probably a mistake. Its not like the first one's box office was massive even if it did well enough to be a hit.

But the first one was well received, specially for such a relatively unknown character. It wasn't going to be a $800 million movie.
I just think the timing of the sequel did it no favors. It came very late in a time where superhero fatigue is starting to settle in. It came out a week before John Wick Chapter 4. Not to mention all the trouble surrounding the actor. The marketing was awful.
I haven't seen the movie yet but it doesn't look like it's terrible. A bad combination of factors.

 

[kguillou]

This is embarrassing. This isn't reflective of the movie's quality it just means literally no one cares to watch it or even give it a shot. Wow.

 

[Mani-Man]

Honestly, I think greenlighting a Shazam sequel was probably a mistake. Its not like the first one's box office was massive even if it did well enough to be a hit.

The first one made enough and left most with wanting more.
Its just that the Villains they came up with being not one from the comics, the whole Black Adam mess, the DCEU ending which leads to the idiotic reason for many not watching this because "Its meaningless for the future", Levis comments, snyder fanboys doing their ususal to smear this movie to the casuals, lackluster marketing...all knocked the Movie down quite a bit.

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Well, it's not as bad as Quantumania's second weekend drop. Don't get me wrong, it's still terrible but there's a least that.



-65.5% drop internationally.

 

[Isub_Zero]

I watched Shazam: FOTG today and... I really wish it's been better, and that they have used the kids more then the Heroes. Though i didn't understand some of the criticism i heard about the movie. A lot of things i really liked at the first movie were underused in this one. especially the all family dynamics and the kids characters,
Shame.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

I like the film for what it is, seen it twice now.

But not surprised at all with the box office performance. There’s no hook in the trailers, no story hook, casting hook, set piece, nothing.

Although people liked the first, it didn’t make much either, so clearly the sequel needed something to really boost the profile of the franchise, like Supes and The Rock debuting as Black Adam. So yeah, if I was an exec I probably wouldn’t have greenlit FotG.

And regarding casting, I know budget was probably an issue, but to me, Lucy Liu just screams straight to dvd. Imagine if they got a few rising stars to play the other sisters instead, like Jenna Ortega, Leslie Grace, etc, which also coulda created a better foil family, another potential story hook. But anyways, still probably just small potatoes compared to the overall lack of appeal in the sequel script.

Another hook (since Supes and Black Adam were off the table) coulda been to explore the seven magical realms, which get really creative and wacky, not to mention Mr Mind, instead of just the Greek Mythology angle everyone’s seen before, and also a clearer character angle in the trailers, with Billy on the cusp of adulthood, resistant to growing up, etc.

 

[kguillou]

You nailed it @FeedOnATreeFrog there was no "hook" in any of the marketing. What sets this apart from other cbms? Why should we be watch this? All it was telling people was that this was a light affable superhero movie about people in capes punching dragons. Thats it.

 

[dhandler01]

Well if the movie had no hook how can the marketing?

 

[Silver Surfer]

This is one of the all-time CBM bombs. Can't even get to 75m domestic. Sheesh.

F4 made about 168m WW, good chance it doesn't beat that.

 

[Mani-Man]

Well if the movie had no hook how can the marketing?

The Trailers, the movie does have several but the Trailer never approaches them.
The Trailers are empty fun...which would be fine if we would be in a different situation and all.

But outside of being a fun superhero movie, the trailers showed little else.
It needed more, the family aspect, the danger of the villains etc...something that hooks people and makes them want to see the movie for a bit more.
Like sure its not wrong to just want a fun superhero movie...but you still need something to reach a broader group of people.

 

[dhandler01]

From what I am hearing it would have needed bait and switch style trailers to get anyone outside of us to care. The original barely grabbed the general audience...

I get people want to blame everyone but the creatives involved with the film but if the film was any good (for the general public) word of mouth would be better than it is. Even people who should like the film like us are basically saying "its fine" or "it is entertaining but nothing special". That is a bad sign. The writers and director made bad choices.

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[Iceman]

The box office is a disaster. So much less than the first film at this point when I thought it would do more.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I'll be waiting for this to turn up on TV (as I did with the last one), but this one looked more interesting to me. Shame.