Nolte: Woke ‘Shazam 2’ Could Lose Up To $150 Million

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is shaping up to be another woke catastrophe at the box office and could lose up to $150 million.

Assuming the math here is correct, Shazam 2 cost $125 million to produce and will need to gross 2.5 times that just to break even, or $312.5 million. Maybe the $100 million or so in promotion costs are part of that formula. We’ll assume they are and go with that $312.5 million.

As of right now, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has grossed only $53.4 million domestic and a measly $119.4 million worldwide. Worse still, it grossed just $4.6 million this weekend after three weekends in release. Shazam 2 is about kaput.

It might not cross $135 million worldwide.

Domestically, the Christian film Jesus Revolution is only $2.5 million behind Shazam 2, with a $51 million gross. Of course, Jesus Revolution cost just $15 million to produce, so it is already in profit.

Back in 2019, the original Shazam! grossed $140.5 million domestic and $368 million worldwide. The sequel won’t do half that.

Shazam 2 was marketed as a family movie…with a theme about homosexuality. One of the supporting characters reveals he’s gay.

Why?

The DC brand is already in enough trouble. No one really likes these movies. Why compound all that by clumsily shoehorning “adult alternative lifestyles” into a superhero movie aimed at the whole family?

The stupidity at work here is breathtaking.

With DC’s massive creative problems, Shazam 2 should have been produced and advertised as something universally appealing, as a great time at the movies, pure escapism, something the whole family can enjoy, a vacation from the stresses and divisions of the real world.

Instead, it was advertised as another piece of anti-art woketardery and affirmative action.

Because my wife was feeling up to it, I finally got a chance to see John Wick 4 (my review is here) over the weekend. Over only two weekends, it has grossed $123 million domestic and $244 million worldwide. We had a blast, as did everyone else in the audience. And yes, it was about something more than cool kills and even cooler stunts. It was about loyalty, friendship, God, and redemption. It also had a multicultural cast, which you gave no thought to because the characters gave no thought to it. No one whined, or virtue signaled.

Of course, movies should be about something, including tolerance for people who are different. But you can do that without lecturing, shaming, grooming, or forcing unsuspecting parents to have an awkward conversation about adult sexuality with their seven-year-old after taking them to what you thought was a fun, carefree superhero movie about friendship and working together.

Shazam 2 will make some of that loss up on home video. However, even if the movie ends up breaking even, that doesn’t change the fact that tens if not hundreds of millions were lost with 1) what this movie could have made without the woke insanity and 2) what the franchise could have pulled in over time.

Warner Bros. killed another golden goose. The loss of a golden goose is incalculable.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.