The director of Shazam 2 reacts to the box office flop

Shazam! wrath of the gods Director David F. Sandberg revealed his reaction to the opening box office numbers for his latest DCEU adventure, which many are calling a flop.

Unfortunately, wrath of the gods had the worst domestic opening Thursday of any DCEU film to date. The movie came right below birds of prey‘s $4.0 million with a meager $3.4 million.

The opening weekend isn’t looking too hot in general either. According to The Wrap, the film aims to gross $35 million domestically, which is 44% less than the first film’s $53.5 million premiere.

Needless to say, it’s a disappointing debut for Zachary Levi and the rest of the Shazam family.

Even more heartbreaking? The director himself doesn’t seem too surprised by all this.

The director of Shazam! responds to cash register numbers

A new Reddit comment by Shazam! wrath of godThe director of , David F. Sandberg, revealed the filmmaker’s reaction to the film’s stunning performance.

After a commenter tagged the Shazam! Director in a Reddit thread reporting box office numbers, Sandberg admitted how “It’s not that this comes as a surprise,” while he goes on to joke that at least he does “Everything paid for [his] money in advance:”

“No problem. It’s not like this comes as a surprise. I’ve seen where this goes for a long time. I’ll be fine though. I got all my money paid in advance [smiley emoji].”

For further clarification, the director elaborated Twitternoting that he “knew what cash register tracking looked like:”

“The director of ‘Shazam’ has also been following you on Twitter for a long time… That’s not what I meant. I thought I knew what cash register tracking looked like. The pay comment was just cheeky, hence the [smiley emoji].”

Why did Shazam: Fury of the Gods underperform?

Much like David F. Sandberg, most fans aren’t too surprised Shazam! wrath of the gods‘ Underperformed – although he probably doesn’t like calling it a flop very much.

For one thing, the film’s reviews didn’t do him any favors, as the project sank into Rotten territory. This is a fate similar to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania just went through on the MCU side of the industry.

However, two factors that are completely independent of the quality of the project are more predominant.

For one, the marketing was subpar at best. Most viewers probably had no idea that the character was getting a sequel this month.

Then, most importantly, there’s the issue of James Gunn’s big DCU reboot. With its big shadow, many are left feeling like those last couple of DCEU movies just don’t matter.

As one would guess, this factor will almost certainly affect the performance of any other DCEU project set to debut this year.

Unfortunately, this also means that the future of Zachary Levi’s Shazam remains a big question mark. Hopefully Gunn can provide information on the hero’s fate sooner rather than later.

Shazam! wrath of the gods is now in cinemas worldwide.