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'Shazam' movie official thread (because he deserves one too)
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1,885 posts in this topic

3 hours ago, Chaos_in_Canada said:

Shazam's! Theater Count (estimate) for the May 3rd weekend is 2,521 (-1,110) (-30.6 % change)

What gave it away? The details already posted?  (:

5 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

 

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6 minutes ago, faster friends said:

Hey Nick. What’s the WW Total now?

Right now here is where it sits: 

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As far as counting out a sequel when Dwayne Johnson already came out to say both Black Adam and Shazam 2 are moving forward, at 3.5X production budget this is already financially successful. But it is not Superhero Massive financially successful due to its release schedule. The studio most probably will have to eat that after such strong critic and audience positive feedback. When comparing to other 3.?X films, it's in the same category as Iron Man II, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Batman v Superman and Ant-Man & The Wasp.

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On 5/3/2019 at 6:13 AM, Oddball said:

Whatever this movie (or any movie) makes has no affect on me. I only care if the movie is good. I enjoyed it and I guess it was a critical success as well.

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The ultimate Litmus test of a great Super Hero movie...   (thumbsu

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Edited by Mr.TawkyTawny
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News-a-Rama did a series of articles about the history of Shazam/Captain Marvel. I had no idea the very first superhero film was The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941).

An Oral History of CAPTAIN MARVEL: The SHAZAM Years, pt. 1

Quote

The Original Captain Marvel - The SHAZAM Years: 1973-1987, Part One

By the early 1970s, Captain Marvel had been gone from newsstands for almost two decades under the terms of Fawcett Comics’ settlement with DC. But DC itself was facing problems as the changing times – and changing style of comics – made many of their older heroes seem old-fashioned and out of touch.

 

Longtime DC artist Carmine Infantino was promoted to editorial director and later publisher. His achievements included bringing in such new talents as Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, who brought Batman back to his roots as “The Dark Knight,” and hiring Jack Kirby away from Marvel, where he created such books as The New Gods, The Demon and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth.

 

But revitalizing the Superman books proved a tough nut to crack, even with Denny O’Neil creating a new, less-powered status quo for the character and Jack Kirby bringing Jimmy Olsen into his “Fourth World” group of books. DC’s solution? In a variation on what they did with Kirby, they decided to hire the competition.

 

Michael Uslan (Executive Producer of all Batman movies, forthcoming Shazam film): “In 1972 or 1973, when sales of Superman weren’t so great, DC turned to Fawcett and said, ‘Hey, you can’t do anything with this character without our permission under the terms of the settlement, so how about licensing the character to us, and we’ll publish it?’”

 

Chip Kidd (author, Shazam!: The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal): “I don’t think the irony of this was lost on anyone.”

 

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as just bringing Captain Marvel back – Marvel Comics now had the trademark to the title “Captain Marvel.” So DC went with the next best title – Shazam!

 

Michael Uslan: “By the time Carmine Infantino and (DC VP, later president) Sol Harrison approached Fawcett about bringing back Captain Marvel, they were stopped from using the name on the cover as a title.

 

“Now, you’ll find on the earliest issues of Shazam!, the title reads Shazam!: The Original Captain Marvel. And then Marvel sent them a cease and desist letter saying that under trademark laws, you couldn’t even have the name prominently on the cover like that. So they had to then had to change it to Shazam!: The World’s Mightiest Mortal.”

 

Jeff Smith (writer/artist, Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil): “I had not experienced the character at all, not even reprints of Golden Age stories, until DC did that comic in the 1970s. I remember getting Shazam #1 and seeing ‘The Original Captain Marvel!’ on the cover.”

 

Mark Waid (Kingdom Come, other Captain Marvel stories): “That was what got me into the character – the hoopla that came with the relaunch of Shazam! in 1972. I had read The Great Comic Book Heroes with the one page on Captain Marvel – legally, that was all you could do! – and I was intrigued by the character.

 

“I think the reason why I and a lot of other kids were intrigued was because he was a forbidden character. You know, ‘the character that dare not speak its name.’ You couldn’t talk about him because of all the legal ramifications and he’d been sued out of existence and so forth.

 

“Aside from the character himself, people wanted to see this character who had all this legal stuff behind him and know what all the hype was about. It was a big launch!”

 

Today, it’s typical for collectors to horde copies of new books in hope that they’ll go up in value. Back then, it was a new idea – and Shazam! #1, with Captain Marvel reintroduced on the cover by Superman himself, was one of the first books that fans just had to have.

 

Mark Waid: “It was one of the first speculator books. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow stuff, I think, had run into problems with speculators where they were buying extra copies off the stands to create weird sales reports. But Shazam #1 was one of the first, if I recall, where retailers and fans were buying up copies.

 

“I even bought two copies back then, when I was 10 years old. And now, that twenty-cent investment is now worth a cool $3.50, so let me tell you, I had my finger on the pulse.”

 

Michael Uslan: “I bought 12.”

 

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12 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

News-a-Rama did a series of articles about the history of Shazam/Captain Marvel. I had no idea the very first superhero film was The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941).

An Oral History of CAPTAIN MARVEL: The SHAZAM Years, pt. 1

 

I didn't know it was the first superhero movie either. I guess someone had to be first. I just went an revised an ebay auction to include that (Classic Film Serials #1), maybe it will spur a purchase.

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15 minutes ago, Bird said:

I didn't know it was the first superhero movie either. I guess someone had to be first. I just went an revised an ebay auction to include that (Classic Film Serials #1), maybe it will spur a purchase.

It turns out because National Periodical Publications had contracted with Paramount Pictures to have Fleischer Studios created the animated series (September, 1941), Republic Pictures went to Fawcett Comics and locked down live rights for Captain Marvel. This led to Adventures of Captain Marvel being released (March, 1941).

Pretty cool details.

Edited by Bosco685
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The big market that took a huge chunk out of Shazam's box office results - China. It drastically under-performed because they wanted a massive battle and didn't appreciate the childish humor.

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2 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

 

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3.6X production budget, which again is a financial win. But in no ways as massive as it could have been with much better release planning.

But is it?

The "production budget" nowadays is usually only about half what studios spend worldwide on a tentpole, which this was supposed to be, so using only that to gage a film's actual performance is only telling you about half the story.  

Total all in budget and worldwide P&A per Deadline/Box office mojo- ~$200MM

Total Worldwide Gross- $355MM

Domestic- $135MM @ 50% = $68MM

China- $44MM @ 25% = $11MM

Other Countries- $176MM @ 40% = $70MM

Total to Studio so far- $149MM

Total Loss to Studio Right Now- (-)$51MM

If this movie does end up around $365MM, yes, it can justifiably be called a flop, and no, i would not be holding my breath for any sequel or spin off movies any time soon, or ever.  Undoubtedly after the unqualified financial success of Aquaman WB was expecting this to do at least $500MM.  It was not meant to be.  This movie was fine, completely forgettable, but fine. But it was also an overlong movie about an obscure character which failed to resonate with any audience worldwide, and at the end of the day fell victim to a pisspoor release schedule, market saturation, a truly terrible ad campaign, continuing WB incompetence, in addition to audience apathy.  

-J.

Edited by Jaydogrules
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