Zachary Levi has agreed that Zack Snyder fans are “happy” that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has failed at the box office.
The DC sequel earned $30million (£24million) at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, which is well below the $53million (£44million) the original Shazam! opened with in 2019.
Fury Of The Gods cost a reported $110million (£90million) to make and a further $100million (£80million) to market, so the film has recorded a huge loss overall.
Levi, who stars as the titular hero in both films, made sure not to blame Snyder fans for the box office failure but acknowledged that many of them would be happy to see the film underperform after Warner Bros. dropped Snyder’s DC Universe.
“There is no denying that at the moment there are many Snyder fans who are happy for the failure of your film and many of them wish that everything that is to come fails just for not continuing with the films of their director,” one fan wrote to Levi on Twitter.
“This is also true,” Levi replied in a since deleted tweet. “Sad, but true. How much that actually affects the box office is anyone’s guess. But I think the biggest issue we’re having is marketing. This is a perfect family movie, and yet a lot of families aren’t aware of that. Which is just a shame.”
The film has also been poorly received by critics, with the sequel currently holding a rotten score of 53 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically, but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film,” director David F. Sandberg wrote in his own Twitter thread in reaction to the film’s negative reception.
“Oh well. As I’ve been saying for a while now I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of Shazam I’m definitely done with superheroes for now.”
He continued: “Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the Shazam movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences. One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not having to think about that anymore.”
Rachel Zegler, who stars in Fury Of The Gods as Athena, also took to Twitter to weigh in on the film’s critical reception. “Hey our film is actually really good!” Zegler wrote. “But mostly I just absolutely loved making it and the people I met whilst doing so. Go see it! Give it a chance. We have an 85% audience score for a reason.”
Zegler added: “Some people out there [are] just being… senselessly mean. And it’s unnecessary. And I know, I know, ‘If you can’t handle the heat…’ and all that nonsense, and you’re right. But our film is actually very good. It’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays. That’s okay. We’re good.”
In a two-star review of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, NME wrote: “There’s a cheap and clumsy feel to everything – a superhero sequel made in the same vague shape as a dozen others. Nodding and winking its way towards a place in a shared universe throughout the end-credit stings, all eyes are clearly on bigger super-ensembles with even more tones, characters and moving parts to juggle.”
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