It’s sequel season as Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Scream VI, and Creed III dominate a mild March box office.
March comes in like a lion and goes out with the Fury of the Gods. DC continues to float on with another “okay” performing superhero flick, this time the sequel to 2019’s Shazam!.
At $30.5 million, Shazam! Fury of the Gods claimed the top spot at the weekend box office, ahead of Scream VI in its second week of release ($17.5 million), and Creed III in its third week of release ($15.4 million).
Lucy Liu in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ | CREDIT: WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Starring Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, and Zachary Levi as the titular caped one, Shazam! Fury of the Gods continues the adventures of young Billy Batson and his foster siblings who turn into superheroes by saying the magic word, emphatically: Shazam!
Globally, the sequel took in another $35 million, bringing its total to $65 million. As far as comic book movies go, that’s not that super, but Fury of the Gods also only cost $125 million; for comparison, Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s production cost was $200 million.
With recent shake-ups over at Warner Bros. and its DC superhero empire, the four-year drought between Shazam!s, an already marginally popular character in DC’s pantheon, and some social media controversy over its leading man, interest for the sequel may have waned, even with the promise of a spoiled Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman cameo.
Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ | CREDIT: MARVEL STUDIOS
Adam Driver’s 65, about a “futuristic” space cruiser that crash lands on a distant planet and only the captain and a young girl survive, earned $5.8 million in its second week, while Quantumania rounds out the top 5 with $4 million, bringing its five week total to $205.8 million domestically, $462.6 million globally.
Speaking of superheroes, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are back in theaters with Moving On, following last month’s 80 for Brady, in limited release with a debut just short of $800,000. Cocaine Bear is still blowing rails in its fourth week out — with a total cume of $58 million, the Elizabeth Banks film has already recouped its $35 million budget and then some.
If you haven’t seen Avatar: The Way of Water yet, that little film could really use your help. It’s only made $678 million domestically. This weekend, the Oscar-nominated sequel became the third film to cross the $2.3 billion mark. But it’s still got a good $500 million to go before it overtakes Avengers: Endgame as the second highest grossing movie of all time, behind the original Avatar ($2.9 billion).
