“Shazam” filmmaker David F. Sandberg is done with superheroes following the “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” sequel scoring a bad opening weekend and poor critical reviews.
The new film came in with a lower-than-estimated $30.5 million domestically during its opening weekend, not a good amount considering its production budget of around $110-125 million and a further $100 million to market.
Combined with a similarly soft international launch, the film is already being deemed a bomb in some circles. Now Sandberg, who directed both the well-received first and the recent sequel, has taken to Twitter with a thread about his experience making the film.
Talking about the film’s performance and his future, he says:
“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. 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.”
He also wants to make it clear he’s not washing his hands of the films, and remains very proud of the work done:
“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 having to think about that anymore.”
Sandberg first made a name for himself directing horror films “Lights Out” and “Annabelle: Creation”. Sandberg’s tweets follow those of actress Rachel Zegler who called out some of the criticism the film has received, dubbing it “senselessly mean” and “unnecessary” before adding: “our film is actually very good, it’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays. That’s okay. We’re good.”
A leaked Amazon listing (Via When to Stream) suggests the film is already set for a PVOD release on April 18th.
Source: Twitter
