Shazam! Fury of the Gods is tanking at the North American box office with an opening weekend of just $30 million.
This box office number could go a little lower or higher, but not enough to save this stinker.
Stick a fork in Shazam!
He’s done.
Why in the world Shazam! Fury of the Gods decided to have one of its supporting characters come out as gay and then use that reveal as part of the marketing plan is obvious. The filmmakers want diversity points. But at what cost? Well, 2019’s Shazam! opened to $54 million and cost $100 million to produce. Shazam! Fury of the Gods cost $125 million to produce and will be lucky to clear $70 million at the domestic box office.
You add what must be around $50 million in marketing costs to that $125 million production budget, and you have is a movie that will have to clear around $400 million worldwide just to break even. Unless there’s some unexpected groundswell, that ain’t happening.
And it’s only not that heterosexuals are uncomfortable with homosexuality. This is bad storytelling. Making a character gay just to make them gay breaks the storytelling spell. What does anyone’s sexuality have to do with anything? It seems like every movie and TV show does this now, and it is always ham-handed and obvious, and awkward. But it continues to happen, even though woketardery is killing off one lucrative franchise after another.
Christian Toto reviewed Shazam! Fury of the Gods. It’s a mostly positive review, but this part is fascinating:
“Fury of the Gods” promised a more inclusive story, so we’re told one of the family members is gay via two awkward screen moments that last roughly six seconds. Maybe seven.
Score one for diversity!
Doesn’t that prove my point that this is only about inserting an awkward, uncomfortable, and spell-breaking record scratch to appease the Alphabet People Mafia? There are less than ten seconds devoted to this, which proves it’s not about story or character. It’s only about filling a quota, which hurts your story and probably doesn’t please the Alphabet People Mafia.
If you want gay characters on the screen, make a gay movie. But that stuff is never going to fly in a mainstream film. The mainstream public rejecting these lectures—even if they only last six or seven seconds—is something we have seen over and over and over again.
I know Bros flopped, but Love, Simon didn’t. Regardless, both sets of filmmakers had the right idea: Produce gay movies for a gay audience. You never have and never will see me criticize Hollywood for making a movie aimed at the gay community. Hollywood should make movies for everyone. But straight people don’t want to be exposed to this stuff. Our wiring (except for hot lesbians) makes it uncomfortable, and no one goes to the movies to be uncomfortable. We go to the movies to be transported for a couple of hours and resent it when the spell is broken for an eye-rolling PSA.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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