Zachary Levi as Shazam in DC and New Line’s sequel Shazam! Wrath of the Gods.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
DC and New Line Cinema’s Shazam! Wrath of the Gods is hoping for some heavenly help when it opens this weekend in thousands of theaters across the US and the world.
According to pre-release tracking, the superhero pic is expected to open with more than $35 million in North America, compared to a $53.5 million domestic debut. Shazam! in 2019, not adjusted for inflation. No major Hollywood studio is going to make a sequel that doesn’t live up to the first, so many wonder if the follow-up is too conservative in this case.
Still, families—which played a key role in the first film’s performance—remain a challenging movie demo in the age of the pandemic.
Wrath of the Gods is the 12th installment in the DC Extended Universe and the first to be released under the direction of filmmaker James Gunn and Shazam! producer Peter Safran was named head of DC Studios. It is home to some of the most iconic superheroes in comic book history (from Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman).
Like rival Marvel Studios, DC also mines lesser-known superheroes such as Shazam.
Should Wrath of the Gods The $35 million price tag may also raise concerns about superhero fatigue. In recent weeks, the trio of Marvel and Disney Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania debuted with a relatively lackluster $106.1 million domestically before suffering the worst sophomore performance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Shazam 2His villains are the Daughters of Atlas, a trio of ancient goddesses who have come to Earth to reclaim the magical powers that were taken from them by the wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou). Naturally, defeating the bad guys is up to Billy Batson aka Shazam (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and his extended family/fellow superheroes Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody), Eugene (Ian Chen/Ross Butler), Darla (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good), Pedro ( Jovan Armand/DJ Cotrona) and Mary (Grace Caroline Currey, who plays both regular and superhero versions of her character with a change in hairstyle).
The goddesses Hespera, Calypso and Anthea are played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and in her first film since Spielberg. west side ShakingRachel Zegler.
Directed by David F. Sandberg Shazam! Wrath of the Gods From a screenplay by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan.
Wrath of the Gods Also in the future is the future of DC characters and actors that were introduced before Gunn and Safran took over. For example, Superman actor Henry Cavill will not return. Levi talked about his future at Tuesday’s Hollywood premiere, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “I’m very happy with this movie… I hope it’s not the last one.”