UPDATE: Deadline recently reported Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently looking at an opening take of $35 million, which is even lower than previously expected. It should be noted these figures are early and may change as Warner Bros. Discovery markets the film. The original article with previous estimates can be found below.
According to new forecasts, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is not expected to perform well in its opening weekend and could see some of the worst numbers in DC Extended Universe history.
Box Office Pro estimates that the movie will earn between $43M and $52M in its opening weekend, and between $101M and $130M in total domestically. This would see it underperform its predecessor, 2019's Shazam!, which finished first at the box office with $53.5 million in its opening weekend and went on to earn $140.5 million domestically. Excluding the pandemic releases Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad, the only DCEU title Fury of the Gods is expected to beat is Birds of Prey (2020), which made $33 million in its opening weekend and $84 million domestically.
The first movie was notably followed after just four weeks by box office juggernaut Avengers: Endgame, which would go on to gross more than $800 million domestically. Fury of the Gods won't have any serious Marvel Cinematic Universe competition, coming out several weeks after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but the hotly anticipated John Wick: Chapter 4 and family-friendly Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will both open within Fury of the Gods' first few weeks. The movie was previously set to be released on Dec. 21, 2022, but was pushed back to avoid competing with Avatar: The Way of Water for IMAX screens.
Shazam's Future in the DC Universe Is Unclear
This unflattering forecast may not bode well for the future of Zachary Levi's version of the character in the new DC Universe. Levi recently shared that DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran will make their decision about Shazam's future based on the success of the upcoming sequel. "I'm sure I'm gonna sit down with James and Peter soon enough, and we'll talk about what we think the trajectory of all this will be," Levi said. "The success of the second movie will determine a lot."
Grace Caroline Currey, who plays Mary Bromfield in the Shazam! sequel, recently addressed one of the factors in Box Office Pro's estimate: reports that some DC fans aren't invested in Fury of the Gods because they think the shakeup at DC will make it irrelevant. "I think whenever there’s change, people jump to the worst-case scenario," she said. "But there’s also the possibility that it could be the best-case scenario, and it could be really awesome, and Shazam! -- the second one -- you've got to remember it’s produced by Peter Safran, and he’s now running DC."
Shazam! Fury of the Gods releases in theaters on March 17.
Source: Box Office Pro, Deadline