North America also encountered Waterloo, and the dream of "DC Universe" was difficult to achieve

In the third week of March, Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods was finally released after many jumps.

However, after the first week, Thunder Shazam! The performance of Wrath of the Gods (hereinafter referred to as "Thunder Shazam 2") encountered Waterloo, only getting 30 million US dollars at the weekend box office in North America, and also encountered the "Rotten Tomatoes" treatment of the mainstream media, and the final box office is expected to decline sharply on the basis of the previous work.

Under the restructured DC Pictures structure, the new "DC Universe" blueprint has been announced. Although this "halberd" will not be counted in the blueprint of the reorganization, this will still make the position of original projects such as "Thunder Shazam 2" slightly embarrassing.

The premiere diving was less than expected, and the market after the two poles of word-of-mouth was worrying

According to The-Numbers, "Thunder Shazam 2" only earned $3.4 million in the early scene, far lower than the $9.23 million in the first installment. After rolling out to 4,071 theaters in North America, "Thunder Shazam 2" won $11.7 million on the first day (including zero), fell 6% and 33% respectively in the next two days, and closed at $30.11 million at the weekend box office, with a single-theater revenue of $7,397.

In contrast, 2019's Thunder Shazam! A total of 4,217 theaters landed, and the premiere score reached 53.51 million US dollars, which shows the decline of the sequel.

In the framework of the original "DC Extended Universe", "Black Adam" started with $67 million last year, once breaking the sluggish momentum of "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Task Force X: All Assembled", but this time "Thunder Shazam 2" turned down again, even lower than "Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn" ($33.01 million) in early 2020, highlighting DC's difficulty in the expansion of the cinematic universe.

"Black Adam"

From the perspective of word of mouth, the freshness of "Thunder Shazam 2" on Rotten Tomatoes is only 51%, far less than the media comprehensive score of the first film (90%), and film critics generally expressed that they were not satisfied with the production level of the sequel, and could only rely on the "cute" charm of the original comic to support the scene; However, its popcorn index, which characterizes audience preference, reached 87%, indicating that "Thunder Shazam 2" still maintains a positive evaluation among fans. However, in the fiercely competitive film market, the bipolar reviews of "Thunder Shazam 2" still lack advantages, and I am afraid that even North America will face difficulties in breaking 100 million.

"Thunder Shazam 2" continues by David S. Directed by F. Sandberg, the return of actors such as Zachary Levy, Arthur Anchi and Jack Dylan Glazer, plus new faces such as Helen Mirren, Liu Yuling and Rachel Ziegler join the cast, telling the story of Billy Batterson, who has obtained extraordinary divine powers, is still learning how to balance the difference between the inside and the outside, but Atlas's daughter, the three goddesses of vengeance, come to Earth to find the divine power that was stolen a long time ago, forcing Batterson and his family to protect their superpowers, There is a fierce battle for the fate of life and the whole world.

While "Thunder Shazam 2" entered the audience to attract the audience, "Scream 6" fell 61% to $17.33 million, and climbed to $75.86 million in two weeks, more than 3 times the "Escape from the Cretaceous" debuted in the same period; In addition, "Quidi 3" is still strong in the future, including Monday's earnings of $129 million, surpassing "Rocky 4" ($128 million) to set a series record without taking inflation into account.

It is worth mentioning that after the 95th Oscars, "Instantaneous Universe" and "Whale", which divided all the acting awards, took advantage of the trend to launch a new round of expansion, and the estimated weekend box office increased by 260% and 128% month-on-month, respectively, continuing to push up the box office peak of producer A24.

As the start of "Thunder Shazam 2" fell below industry expectations, the North American weekend market fell 22% to $91.3 million, ending two consecutive weeks of victory since March. As of the 19th, the total annual box office in North America has exceeded $1.5 billion, and it was not until April last year that it successfully hit the line. At the same time, The-Numbers' comprehensive financial report data from listed theater companies estimates that the average ticket price in North America from 2020 to 2022 is $9.41, $10.40 and $10.45, respectively, while the value in 2019 is $9.16 according to the National Association of Cinema Owners (NATO), which shows that the cost of watching movies has continued to rise in the past three years, and it is expected to remain at a high level of more than $10 this year.

The prospect of space restart is unpredictable, and North America is showing an open attitude

The premiere of "Thunder Shazam 2" hit a new low, and it is difficult to say that it is closely related to the current shock facing the DC universe.

Since 2020, when the original parent company AT&T has aggressively implemented HBO Max's theatrical network synchronization strategy, "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Task Force X: All Assembled" have both fallen prey, and two consecutive films have suffered huge losses at the global box office that are less than the net production cost.

"Wonder Woman 1984" "Task Force X: All Assembled"

AT&T then sold all of its media assets to the Discovery Channel, which didn't announce its merger with WarnerMedia until April last year, and immediately shut down a string of projects to cut costs and completely hide the DC streaming movie "Batgirl." Even if "Black Adam" shows some rebound, the total revenue of less than $400 million is still difficult to say successful.

After Warner Bros. Exploration CEO David Zaslav took over, the original Warner Bros. management experienced a period of turbulent pain, including Picture Group Chairman Toby Emmerich, Warner Media CEO Jason Kilar, etc. have stepped down or left. DC, which originally lacked systematic combing, also ushered in a new leader: director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran became co-CEOs of DC Pictures, responsible for overseeing DC's film, television and animation departments.

In fact, the production of "Thunder Shazam 2" was completed earlier than the "big change" of DC management, and "The Flash", "Blue Beetle" and "Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom" are also scheduled to debut this year.

In January this year, James Gunn announced that the "DC Extended Universe" will usher in a reboot, and the new "DC Universe" after the integration will start with "Superman: Legacy" released in 2025, including theatrical films such as "Power Troopers", "Batman: Valor", "Supergirl" and "Swamp Monster", as well as series such as "Bio Commando", "Waller", "Golden Vanguard", "Green Lantern" and "Paradise Island Fall" dedicated to HBO Max. These 10 projects will make up the first chapter of the "DC Universe", "Gods and Monsters", and "The New Batman 2" directed by Matt Reeves will remain independent.

At present, there are still more than two years before the debut of "Superman: Legacy", and the market prospects of the new "DC Universe" are still difficult to judge; But from the beginning of "Thunder Shazam 2", the original "DC Extended Universe" project is still not optimistic.

In fact, Marvel, as a comic book genre "top performer", has also encountered challenges recently, and the word-of-mouth and box office of "Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantum Frenzy" are both Waterloo; Since the opening of the "fourth phase" in 2021, the territory of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" has expanded to the big screen and streaming media, but the response of many projects has not met expectations, showing that the narrative progress with the "multiverse" as the core is not smooth.

Of course, in addition to the change of the comic book situation of DC and Marvel's "two-way hegemony", the North American film market is also brewing new changes at "another level".

"Manjiang Red" directed by Zhang Yimou was originally scheduled to be released on the same day as "Thunder Shazam 2", but the distributor did not release the film's box office results. Previously, "The Wandering Earth 2" entered North America during the Spring Festival, and the cumulative box office in 9 weeks so far is close to 5 million US dollars.

By comparison, the Indian film "Patan" has earned more than $17.36 million, firmly holding the top spot among non-Hollywood films this year. At the just-concluded Oscar ceremony, last year's Bollywood North American champion "RRR: Double Hero Uprising" defeated rivals such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna, and won the "Best Original Song" award historically, achieving a double harvest of box office and honor in the North American market.

"Patan" "RRR: The Twin Heroes Uprising"

This is in line with the rise of non-Hollywood films overseas in recent years: since "Parasite" swept 4 awards at the Oscars, the visibility of Asian films in the North American market has increased year by year, indicating that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has increasingly praised outstanding non-English films after attracting more overseas members. In Hollywood, minority filmmakers represented by African-Americans and Asians have also broken through barriers, stepping step by step in the mainstream awards dominated by whites in the past, and this year Michelle Yeoh and Kwan Jiwei won two statuettes.

With Hollywood's proactive correction of its historical debt, more Asian faces are expected to shine in the world's largest film market in the future, while South Korea and India are now in the lead. Coupled with the strong box office of Japanese animated films, the cultural influence of Asia's "top three" is growing day by day, and the future prospects in overseas markets and Oscars are worth looking forward to.