‘Shazam!’ You’re No. 1
DC scores another sucess at the box office.
NEW YORK – Seven films in, the DC Extended Universe is finally flying with some wind behind its back. The wellreviewed, more modestly budgeted “Shazam!” opened to $53.5 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, handing DC its latest critical and box-office success.
Though one of the oldest characters in DC’s superhero stable, “Shazam!” doesn’t boast the name recognition of Batman or Superman. But by scaling back to a $100 million budget and going for the lighter, comic tone, “Shazam!” steadily built up its word of mouth with stellar reviews.
“Shazam!” came out well ahead of the weekend’s other top draw, “Pet Sematary.” Paramount Pictures’ remake of the original 1989 Stephen King adaptation opened in a distant second with
$25 million. It’s a solid start for “Pet Sematary,” though far from the haul that the last big-screen adaptation of King’s conjured up: “It” opened with $123.4 million in 2017.
Last week’s top film, “Dumbo,” slid steeply in its second week. Landing in third, the Disney live-action remake dropped 60% with $18.2 million.
Pitched as “‘Big’ meets Superman,’” “Shazam!” stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a teenage foster kid who transforms into an adult superhero (played by Zachary Levi). Its performance further validated DC’s pivot after the disappointments of Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad.” Warner Bros. has since steered its comic book adaptions in a different direction, leaning more on stand-alone entries less predicated on the overall “universe” and more fluctuating in tone.
Earlier in the week, the studio also teased the DC release “Joker,” with Joaquin Phoenix, at CinemaCon. An even smaller-budgeted origin story with a similarly unique, albeit much darker, tone, it was one of the most talkedabout movies at the Las Vegas convention of theater owners.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, notes that the two most dominant genres in movies right now – superheroes and horror – swamped theaters, taking up four of the top five spots at the box office.
In fourth was Jordan Peele’s horror thriller “Us,” which added $13.8 million in its third week. Its cumulative global total stands at $216.6 million.
Marvel’s Brie Larson-led “Captain Marvel,” which recently crossed $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, took in $12.7 million domestically in its fifth weekend.
The weekend’s other wide-release newcomer was “The Best of Enemies,” starring Taraji P. Henson as a civil rights activist and Sam Rockwell as a Ku Klux Klan leader. It opened with $4.5 million.
In limited release, Claire Denis’ “High Life,” starring Robert Pattinson, opened with about $100,000 in four theaters.
Final numbers are expected Monday.