Shazam! Sequel Cost $125M To Make, Projected To Tank Opening Weekend

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is finally going to be released this weekend but it won’t be making as much money as DC would have hoped.

The much anticipated DC film is slowly rolling out beginning on Wednesday overseas where it is projected to make $45M-$50M in the international market. Places like Korea, Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil and Mexico will bring in some of those dollars.

By Friday, the film will be in the UK, Spain, Japan and China as well as the United States market where it’s projected to roll in about $35 million more. The film will be up against Creed III which killed it at the box office on its opening weekend.

Creed III took in $58.3 million. Shazam also has to contend with Scream VI which was released last weekend and made $44.4 million.

The film also has to acknowledge that unlike most DC films (Batman v. Superman, Man of Steel, Justice League) that hold a more adult rating, this film is actually PG and relies heavily on the family aspect.

This is great for places like the Latin American market seeing as they value the family-friendly side of films. Hopefully, this is enough to put a dent in the low box office projections. Another issue that could be causing the superhero movie to come in a little low is China.

Yes, it’s safe to say that they aren’t super happy with America right now and really, they have their own film industry Hollywood-type of world over there, it’s almost a courtesy that they allow American films to play there.

Seeing as there are suspicious balloons and other objects flying over open skies, the conversations are not where they need to be for a mutual contract to continue on.

Naturally, the film's projected numbers are being compared to its predecessor, Shazam! which was released in 2019. They started with a projected budget of $90 to $100 million and the film overshot that projection.

The film ended up making $366 million and on opening weekend it made over $100 million. This is a whole lot more than the sequel directed by David F. Sandberg is set to make this weekend. $85 million is no chump change but when you spend $125 million on a film, you expect results in the form of monetary return.

If you do want to see the film, it has a great cast. In addition to regulars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Adam Brody, Jack Dylan Grazer, and the other superhero friends. The cast now includes Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler.

The plot has the adult superheroes battling ancient vengeful gods one of whom is played by Lucy Liu who comes to earth in search of a stone that can bring their planet back from the darkness. Unfortunately, it looks like they have to really mess up earth to get what they want, and this is where Billy Baston and his orphanage friends have to use their powers to fight!

Hopefully, the film does better than it’s projected to.