Shazam director David F Sandberg is having a bad week.
Sandberg, who helmed the 2019 Shazam origin story and this year’s sequel, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, is dealing with the fallout over the release of the latter.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods has been a box office and critical disappointment, taking in only US$65 million worldwide in its first weekend, while slugged with a 53 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score.
That is significantly worse than the 2019 Shazam movie which opened to US$158 million globally and boasted a 90 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In Australia, the sequel clocked an A$2.32 million opening weekend, compared to A$4.46 million for the 2019 predecessor.
No wonder Sandberg declared he’s “definitely done for now” with superhero movies.
The Swedish filmmaker tweeted yesterday, “On Rotten Tomatoes, I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience on the same film. I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well.
On Rotten Tomatoes I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film 🤷♂️ I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well.
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) March 20, 2023
“As I’ve been saying for a while now, I’m very eager to go back to horror (as well as trying some new things). After six years of Shazam, I’m definitely done with superheroes for now.
“Just to be clear, I don’t regret even for a second making the Shazam movies. I’ve learned so much and gotten to work with some truly amazing people. Will forever be grateful that I got to direct two of these! They’ve been very challenging but valuable experiences.
“One thing I’ve really been looking forward to is disconnecting from the superhero discourse online. A lot of that stresses me out so much and it will be nice not to having to think about that anymore.”
Sandberg’s honesty, especially his last tweet, then hit a nerve in some quarters because three hours later, he returned to Twitter with a screenshot of a Reddit thread which interpreted his comments in a very different way.
The screenshot of a discussion post on the “DC_Cinematic” subreddit was titled “David F. Sandberg blames fans on the failure of Shazam”. Sandberg took umbrage at the mischaracterisation of his original comments.
So that tweet gets turned into this Reddit post and before you know it you risk it becoming accepted truth online and you’ll never hear the end of it. Exhausting. https://t.co/VgSAL0Kom9 pic.twitter.com/08sSr5vTE4
— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) March 20, 2023
Sandberg’s caption, “So that tweet gets turned into this Reddit post and before you know it, you risk it becoming accepted truth online and you’ll never hear the end of it. Exhausting,” references the sometimes toxic nature of online fandoms, which can be particularly intense in superhero genres and comic book culture.
He added, “And I have it pretty easy. The most disheartening thing was seeing the comments on Leslie Grace’s Instagram going ‘Haha, your movie got cancelled!’, ‘You’re not my Batgirl’ etc. And this isn’t limited to superhero fandom. It’s just sad.”
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is centred on the story of Billy Batson, a teenager who is imbued with superpowers, possessing super strength and speed among others. He also morphs into an adult version of himself when he’s in “Shazam form”.
The film stars Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody and Jack Dylan Grazer.
It’s part of the pantheon of the DC Extended Universe, but it’s one of the four final films of that iteration of DC Comics’ screen output. The studio in November hired filmmaker James Gunn and his producing partner Peter Safran to overhaul and relaunch a more focused creative vision.
Since the beginning of the DCEU with the 2013 movie Man of Steel, the titles have lacked cohesion from one to the next. While the DCEU has had hits such as Wonder Woman, its inconsistency has translated into many misses as well, including Justice League.
Shazam’s future in Gunn’s vision of DC movies is uncertain, which may have kept some audiences away if they’re not sure if these versions of the characters will be retired anyway.
Before his work on Shazam, Sandberg was best known for his horror films Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.