Last night, the DC Extended Universe's latest film Shazam! opened opposite the acclaimed new adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Sematary. The latest DC superhero film earned an impressive $5.9 million in preview screenings, putting the superhero movie on track to earn $45-55 million domestically by the end of this coming weekend.
While this puts it above Pet Sematary's haul, the horror remake did pull in a respectable $2.3 million, putting it on par with Us' Thursday night preview opening last month. The latest adaptation of the classic King novel is currently forecasted to earn approximately $20 million at the domestic box office its opening weekend.
Shazam! had already outperformed Aquaman's advance screenings last weekend. The underwater Justice Leaguer's film opened to $67.9 million in December, but it remains to be seen whether Shazam! can match that, much less Aquaman's worldwide billion dollar success. However, with a smaller production budget of $80-100 million, Thursday's number is a strong start for the Earth's Mightiest Mortal, and another win for the DCEU.
Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as the ancient wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez, and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez.
Directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, Pet Sematary stars Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, Jeté Laurence, Hugo and Lucas Lavoie, and John Lithgow. The adaptation of the Stephen King novel opens Friday nationwide.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)