Shazam! (2019) - Box Office Mojo As of April 23: Domestic: $123,984,934 38.1% + Foreign: $201,500,000 61.9% = Worldwide: $325,484,934
I just want to see it do well enough that WB not be tempted to return to a Snyderesque bleak approach to DC movies.
I'm hopeful they won't after this and Aquaman. I guess at this point, the test will be how "Wonder Woman 1984" does. And how dark they decide to make "Black Adam" since that seems to still be on their agenda.
If I could like this twice I would. I'm so done with the grimdark when it comes to superhero movies. It works for Batman. That's it.
It's hard to remember that even Batman wasn't always that way. It took a few episodes into Batman The Brave and the Bold cartoon for me to let go of that and remember how much fun Batman used to be before The Dark Knight Returns changed everything.
I'm not saying it doesn't have a place in cinema, it does. I'm just tired of it being the standard with comic book flicks. Thankfully, it seems we're moving away from that being the norm.
The original Detective run by Finger and Kane before Robin arrived was dark in that it had a mysterious, sometimes gothic atmosphere. But it was never dark in terms of being bleak or depressing.
The first time I read those stories, I was surprised by how early Robin is brought into the series. We get just about a year of the original solo Batman, and even then he's he's lighter and less dark and cracking jokes as he fights before that year is up. Sometimes he's worse than Robin. I will say that having read all of the 1940s Batman, he's very rarely Adam West in that decade. I'll bet the mid-50s, after the comics code kicks in, is where we see the change.
As of April 28, it's slowing down, but then we know which Marvel movie is getting all the box office money at the moment!! Total Lifetime Grosses Domestic: $131,213,630 37.9% + Foreign: $214,700,000 62.1% = Worldwide: $345,913,630
Yeah, sandwiched between that film and "Captain Marvel", I'm just happy it's doing as well as it is. Could have been worse.
I don't think it's fair to compare Shazam to Captain Marvel. CM has a HUGE push behind it to make it popular. Shazam is just an average comic book movie. I think comparing Shazam to say... Dr. Strange is more appropriate.
I'd say Captain Marvel is an average comic book movie propped up by anticipation of Endgame while Shazam is an absolutely fabulous movie held down by the anticipation of another DC movie flop. It's incredibly unfortunate, too, because Shazam deserves better. If this movie had come out instead of Batman vs Superman four years ago, we'd be having a very different discussion right now.
Really late to the party, but watched this over the weekend with 0 expectations. I enjoyed it. Especially the Marvel family at the end. If I had a complaint, I didn't like Dr Sivana had that much power. I thought that "power" would have been saved for the Black Adam movie. Now forgive my ignorance, but I'm only aware of Dr Sivana/Mr Mind from Infinite Crisis/52 so I always thought Sivana was mad scientist. Not sure if he ever had the magical 7 deadly sins before.
