Tracking in the weeks leading up to the release of DC's Shazam! Fury of the Gods has suggested that the movie may under-perform at the box office. And while tracking is by no means infallible, grosses from the film's Thursday night previews suggest that in this case, they very well may be accurate: According to Deadline, the movie took in $3.4M from Thursday previews at 3,400 theaters... a steep drop from the $5.9M the original Shazam! made during its own previews back in 2019.

In fact, not only did Shazam! Fury of the Gods gross less from Thursday previews than its predecessor, but it grossed less from Thursday previews than many other recent high-profile releases, including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($17.5M), Creed III ($5.4M) and last week's Scream VI ($5.7M). Those films went on to open to $118M, $58.7M and $44.5M, respectively. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is ultimately expected to come in somewhere in the $35M range for its opening weekend, far below the original's first-frame haul of $53.5M.

Will word of mouth help raise the movie's grosses in the coming weeks, despite a disappointing opening weekend? It's hard to say, but critical reaction thus far has been less-than-positive: Shazam! Fury of the Gods currently has paltry 55% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, versus the original's 90% fresh rating. Indeed, reviewing the film for Collider, Ross Bonaime decried Fury of the Gods' "cringeworthy humor," an "irritating performance" by Zacahry Levi, "bland villains," and "not enough time to give these other characters their due." Only time will tell if general audiences feel the same way. The film's earnings will also certainly be increased by the international box office, which will include the potentially-very-lucrative market of China (the movie is expected to have an international opening of about $85M).

Zachary Levi and Jack Dylan Grazer as Shazam and Eddie in Shazam
Image via Warner Bros.

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Directed once again by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) from a screenplay by Henry Gayden (There's Someone Inside Your House) and Chris Morgan (the Fast & Furious franchise), Shazam! Fury of the Gods finds the titular hero and his super-family trying to thwart a plot by the Daughters of Atlas (Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler) to restore magic powers to the gods - even if it means destroying Earth in order to do so. The film also stars returning cast members Adam Brody, Djimon Honsou, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Meagan Good, D.J. Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey and Ross Butler. Check out our recent interview with the cast below.