Predicting The Success Of The Next 10 Major Comic Book Movies
6. Shazam! (April 5, 2019)
Predicted Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66% Predicted Box Office: $420m
Shazam! may have been the biggest winner to come out of this year's San Diego Comic-Con, with the debut of the first trailer forcing many to put away the knives they had been sharpening since the project was first announced.
Star Zachary Levi clearly wasn't lying when he described the project as 'Big with superheroes', and while not all of the jokes in the trailer land and Levi's muscle suit still looks a little ridiculous, the youthful protagonists and overriding sense of fun and optimism mark a welcome and much-needed tonal departure for the DCEU despite the project clearly existing within the same continuity.
If the word-of-mouth is strong, then the project has a real shot of becoming the breakout family-friendly hit that DC and Warner Bros. needs. The April 5 release date comes four weeks after Captain Marvel and four weeks before Avengers 4, giving it plenty of breathing room in between the two Marvel Studios blockbusters, with Tim Burton's Dumbo and the Robert Downey Jr.-starring Doctor Dolittle reboot the only direct competition in the interim.
Lacking the name recognition that came with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man ($821.7m) or Man of Steel ($668m), and the years of audience goodwill afforded to Marvel Studios (Ant-Man's $519.3m and Doctor Strange's $677.7m) its tricky to predict just how high Shazam! could go as a potential franchise-starter.
It should easily outstrip Green Lantern's paltry $219.8m but fall well short of Iron Man's $585.2m, with perhaps the best bet placing it somewhere in between the $370m-$450m region occupied by fellow origin stories Batman Begins, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor.