Shazam! Fury of the Gods isn’t doing so hot. The latest DC movie has seen a terrible box-office performance, notching up the worst domestic opening Thursday of any DCEU film to date, an opening weekend of just $35 million (a massive drop from Shazam!‘s $53.5 million haul), and a similarly disappointing international performance.
Many saw this coming, with a lackluster marketing campaign, the iffy performance of the first Shazam!, and the knowledge that James Gunn is about to begin a huge overhaul of the DCU. Even director David F. Sandberg doesn’t seem too surprised, noting that “I got paid all my money upfront” and “I saw where this was heading a long time ago.”
All this has resulted in calls for Gunn to not simply rework the DCU, but to start over from scratch with a full reboot.
Are highlights like Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn worth sacrificing?
But do wider audiences know about the impending reset?
Should DC just have gritted their teeth and embraced the Snyderverse?
Can lessons be learned from Joker, or is it too late?
And after a full reset, can we really trust Warner Bros. not to just slam that button again if things start going wrong?
The current DCEU still has The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to get through, with the latter releasing right at the end of the year. We suspect that’ll be the last gasp of the DCEU that began with Man of Steel — and can only agree with fans that it’s time to put this tortured shared universe out of its misery.
Roll on the Gunn era.