“People were insanely unkind”: Zachary Levi Blasts Critics for Killing His Shazam 2, Calls Sequel ‘Darn Good’ Despite Making Only $133M at Box-Office
Shazam! The Fury of Gods, starring Zachary Levi in the lead role, was a superhero movie released earlier this year but didn’t make too much of a profit at the box office. It quite literally bombed. However, this movie only seemed to be the beginning as more superhero movies went on to get flopped in the last few months.
With an estimated budget of $100 million minus the marketing costs, Shazam! The Fury of Gods only earned a meager $133.8 million worldwide. Although there is a plethora of reasons why this might have happened, Zachary Levi has recently blamed the critics for the movie’s failure.
Zachary Levi Has Expressed His Annoyance About the Critics’ Ratings
Shazam 1 was released in April 2019 and had been a box-office success. So, naturally, the entire team of the movie came together once again to make a sequel to this movie. Unfortunately, the sequel couldn’t achieve what the first movie did. Among other things, critics and people on the internet have also been held for the movie’s failure. However, Zachary Levi believes that the critics had more to do with it.
“I don’t know what the future holds for it all because, unfortunately, the second movie was not as well received. The audience score is still quite good, but the critics’ score was very oddly and perplexingly low, and people were insanely unkind.”
In Levi’s opinion, the movie wasn’t an “Orson Welles-like masterpiece”, but it is a good movie. He has also admitted that since he was involved in the project, he knows that the movie was a light-hearted entertainment that should have done better business than it has.
Read More: “I don’t know what the future holds”: Zachary Levi Breaks Silence on Shazam 3
While the Chuck actor said that he has no idea what is going to be the franchise’s future, he certainly hopes that years from now, when people watch Shazam! The Fury of Gods to relax, will realize that the movie wasn’t bad as it is said to be.
Reasons for the Failure of Shazam! The Fury of Gods
One of the reasons Shazam! The Fury of Gods didn’t do well was James Gunn’s announcement of the DCEU reboot. This announcement somewhere or the other made the movie less significant as fans understood that all these recently released DCU movies will not hold importance in the reboot.
The overall marketing of this movie was also a major factor that contributed to the movie’s failure. Firstly, the trailer gave away way too much for fans to remain interested enough to go to the theatres to watch the movie. Secondly, in March 2023, Zachary Levi agreed that Zack Snyder’s fans rejoice in the failures of the DCU movies that are not directed by Snyder.
Read More: The Flash Almost Covers Up Entire Shazam 2 Box Office Run in a Single Weekend
Another factor that could have caused the movie’s bombing is the absence of any Black Adam characters as it was originally planned. All in all, neither Mercury’s speed nor Hercules’ strength could save the sequel of Shazam. Hopefully, the next move will do better; if there is one that is.
Source: IndieWire
