Zachary Levi speaks out on Zack Snyder fans and ‘Shazam 2’ failure
‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ bombed at the box office, earning only $30 million in its domestic debut.
The second Shazam film in the DC Universe, directed by David Sandberg, recently came out in theaters on March 17, 2023. ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ has been a huge disappointment at the domestic box office, earning less than a third of what it cost to make the film.
Critics and DC Comics fans are wondering why the film earned significantly lower-than-projected numbers at its debut. Many point to fans of Zack Snyder, previous DC Universe director until Warner Bros. dropped him for directors James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Fans of Snyder’s contributions to the DC Universe (which includes ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and ‘Justice League’) may be rooting for ‘Shazam’ to fail as a statement against Warner Bros.’ decision to move on from Snyder’s work.
Zachary Levi comments on Snyder fans
Zachary Levi, who plays Shazam in both films, recently spoke out on Twitter about the superhero movie’s struggle to gain recognition. Amongst other reasons, he acknowledges that Snyder fans’ opposition to a DC movie not directed by Snyder may have some public sway.
One fan reached out to Levi on Twitter about the movie’s failure at the box office.
“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,” the Twitter user wrote to Levi.
Levi responded to the tweet, acknowledging that this might have played a factor, but that ultimately there were also other reasons why the film did not perform well this past weekend.
“This is also true. Sad, but true,” Levi replied.
“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 also true. 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. 🤷♂️ https://t.co/Fpw6Ja384F
— Zachary Levi (@ZacharyLevi) March 21, 2023
DC fans show love for ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’
Generally, fans who saw the movie agree that it was worth the watch, and its poor performance at the box office was likely due to underwhelming marketing campaigns run prior to the movie’s release.
The first is still my favorite but this one was pretty good too. I don’t understand the hate for this one when it’s basically more of the first which got good reviews. It genuinely made me laugh out loud several times which most comedies don’t even do.
— Cam (@cameron101298) March 19, 2023
I’d definitely be down for Mary Marvel solo film. I dunno how it’d perform but I’ve always loved her character in the comics 😁
— Ruby 🌙 (@RubidiumMoon) March 21, 2023
The general audience likes shazam. The lack of marketing hurt this movie, nothing else.
— Kevin (@Kickingbricks) March 20, 2023