The Box Office for Shazam 2 and Ant-Man 3: An Update

Not so long ago I wrote here, after Shazam 2's opening weekend, that the movie might fall short of $80 million domestic and $200 million global--and thought myself pessimistic for doing so.

Right now that prediction looks wildly optimistic.

After four weeks in theaters in North America Shazam 2 has pulled in a mere $57 million--below the $60 million, never mind the $80 million mark.

Globally the situation has not been much better. Adding a mere $71 million to its take after being out in just about all the major markets for the same period (China included), the overseas drop is proving even sharper than the domestic one.

That would leaving it with less than $130 million at last count and not much further to go, which would be not quite one-third the adjusted-for-inflation gross of the none-too-stellar (frankly, marginal) original Shazam. Not only virtually guaranteeing it a spot in any list of the year's biggest money-losers, it is another black eye for the DC Universe that, even with a much-publicized overhaul in the works, could scarcely afford another blow.

At the same time Ant-Man 3 in its ninth weekend, is not even in the top ten films, but down to #22, and took in a mere $44,000, suggesting that it will top out at a mere $213 million domestically--while maybe not making $480 million globally.

All of this underlines just how badly these films have done--with the fact the more pointed given how, proving one cannot simply see their underperformance as a matter of some general box office-dampening effect, given that, even if the box office is not yet back to normal (the first three months this year saw $1.7 billion in ticket sales, as against the billion a month expected pre-pandemic), many other franchise films enjoyed robust grosses during the same time frame, including John Wick 4 and Creed 3 (meeting a more modest standard, but all the same, meeting it), and now the genuine blockbuster that is the new The Super Mario Bros. Movie. With nearly $350 million banked domestically (and approaching twice that globally), after a mere twelve days in theaters, it is the top-grossing release of 2023. And while it may not retain the title for much longer with the summer film season coming up fast, it is far from impossible that this, and not Guardians of the Galaxy 3, will be Chris Pratt's top-grossing film of the year.

If so, it would be yet another blow to not just the Marvel brand, but the ever more tired-looking superhero film genre as a whole, with still more pain locked into the schedule given just how much more MCU the public has coming its way. After all, with Phase 5's debut not making the half billion dollar mark, and the Guardians sequel failing to provide an overdue lift, what chance does a Kraven the Hunter movie have, even were it to have the makings of a hit? Or for that matter that subsequent MCU movie in which so much more is being invested, The Marvels?