Box Office Discussion: "Gods" is Dead

 Shazam! Fury of the Gods stumbles out of the gate.

(Sorry, this is again a week late.  This week's should be up later this week).

On paper, there isn't any good reason that the DCU should be such a mess.  After all, its two most famous characters--Batman and Superman--are arguably more iconic than any character in the competing MCU, not to mention that Warner Bros. has been making successful live-action superhero movies for decades.  While the DCU hasn't been a complete disaster (Wonder Woman, for example), it definitely didn't come close to living up to expectations, with the nadir before now likely being last fall's Black Adam, which arrived with both a ton of hype and the biggest name actor to appear in either an MCU or DCU movie outside of Will Smith, only to see it ultimately gross less domestically than all but two MCU titles.  It was no surprise that a full-scale overhaul of the DCU was announced shortly thereafter.

Of course, that left the slight problem of there still being three DCU movies having been filmed and awaiting theatrical release.  New DCU heads James Gunn and Peter Safran have made all the right noises about this not necessarily being the end of the remaining franchises, but after the first of the three, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, face-planted despite no other new arrivals, its safe to say that, despite the post-credits sequences, Zachary Levi's time in the Universe is probably over.  Gods could only manage $30.1 million, only a little more than half of what the first Shazam! opened to in 2019.  Unless word of mouth gets this much better legs than most superhero films, this one looks to finish its run below $100 million, a total that's utterly unthinkable in the MCU, but would actually make this the fourth DCU title to suffer that fate.

Falling a good-for-a-horror sequel 60%, Scream VI slashed its way to $17.3 million for a ten-day total of $75.9 million.  The New York-set sixquel is still on track to become the first franchise entry since 1997's Scream 2 to top $100 million, and seems likely to be the franchise's highest grosser ever by the end of its run.

In third, Creed III doesn't have to wait much longer to become the highest-grosser of the Rocky franchise, as it punches out another $15.4 million to end the third round with $127.7 million.  That's less than $200,000 away from topping 1985's Rocky IV.

65 managed to hold up better than Scream, losing only a bit over 50% of its opening weekend, but that's not much comfort considering how poorly it opened.  The Adam Driver vs. Dinosaurs thriller took in $5.9 million for a ten-day total of $22.5 million, and appears to be heading for extinction somewhere around $30-$35 million.

While even disappointing MCU titles can show up flop DCU titles, this doesn't mean there isn't cause for concern about the performance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.  The Paul Rudd starrer continued to see its grosses dramatically shrink, taking in $4.2 million for a total of $206 million.  It still seems likely to edge past the final gross of 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp, but given that it opened to nearly $30 million more, such a final would likely preclude any further solo Ant-Man movies.

In sixth, Cocaine Bear continues its successful rampage, taking in $4 million for a total of $58.6 million.  Jesus Revolution is now the highest-grossing Christian film since I Can Only Imagine, as it was blessed with $3.5 million for a total of $45.5 million.

In 8th, dramady Champions actually had the smallest drop of last weekend's newcomers, falling only 40%, but as with 65, a small opening means even a small drop is pretty brutal.  The inspirational dramady took in $3.1 million for a ten-day total of $10.7 million, and looks to be fouling out around $15 million.

Rounding out the Top 10, Christmas releases Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish continued to chug along, taking in $2.1 million and $1.6 million, respectively.  Grosses are now at $678.3 million and $182.6 million.

Outside the Top 10, both of the big winners from the Oscars, The Whale (Best Actor for Brendan Frasier) and Everything Everywhere All At Once (pretty much every other major award, including Picture and Actress for Michelle Yeoh) expanded after their awards.  Everything Everywhere celebrated its first anniversary by taking in $1.3 million, to bring its gross to $75.6 million.  Meanwhile, The Whale saw its gross rise to $17.3 million.

This weekend's big newcomer is John Wick: Chapter 4.  The Wick movies have done the neat trick of pretty much doubling both openings and final grosses from film to film.  In 2014, the first one opened to $14.4 million and finished with a solid $43 million.  Thanks to DVD, the film attracted an enthusiastic following, and the sequel opened in 2017 to more than double the first film's opening, at $30.4 million, and more than twice its final gross, at $92 million.  By the time the third one arrived in 2019, the films were full-fledged phenomenon, and while Chapter 3 couldn't quite double Chapter 2's opening and final, it came awfully close, opening at $56.8 million and finishing at $171 million.  Chapter 4 will certainly not come close to doubling Chapter 3--no one is expecting anywhere close to a $100 million opening.  But a bigger--possibly significantly bigger--opening than Chapter 3 is definitely on the table.  Just how big will John Wick be?  We'll find out next week.