Shazam! | April 5, 2019 | 21st Most Profitable Film of 2019

[Bane Cook]

Have a feeling this movie will be great but will also underperform. As long as the budget really is as low as 80-90M then it’s fine. What DC really needs right now is good will built up with the general audience. They need to start building towards a future where the DC brand attracts people to see a random movie just like the Marvel brand does. So as long as the movie is good then I think it’s a win even with an underperformance. 

 

I know DC is coming off a billion dollar movie but I still feel their brand is not quite there yet. They need a string of good or at least enjoyable movies.

[LordNox]

Brand is overrated when it comes to the BO. If brand was important Aquaman would have bombed coming directly after Justice League. 

 

Sure Marvel has done better overall than the DCEU but that has very little to do with the brand. It has to do with Marvel having made generally better recieved movies. Compare the rotten tomato scores and you see that except for a few movies the MCU movies have a higher score compared to the DCEU movies. When a DCEU movie gets well recieved it also earns a lot of money see Wonder Woman and Aquaman for example. If Shazam is a good movie audiences will go and watch it.

[Heat Vision]

MOS number would be a big win for this.

[Spidey Freak]

1 hour ago, Heat Vision said:

MOS number would be a big win for this.

Considering the factors: little known superhero, smaller budget, sandwiched between bigger blockbusters etc. AMATW numbers should be a big win for this too. Heck, first Ant-Man numbers are enough to sustain the DCEU momentum. Not every DC film needs to make more than JL from this point on.

[Zakiyyah6]

People had the exact same feelings that Aquaman would under perform. The truth is, nobody knows nothing. This isn't a mega budgeted film so WB aren't expecting 800mil. As long as the film is entertaining it will do well. Never underestimate WB and New Line's marketing prowess. 

 

I also will agree that character popularity means nothing. How many people knew who Black Panther was?

Edited February 3, 2019 by Zakiyyah6

[DlAMONDZ]

3 hours ago, LordNox said:

Brand is overrated when it comes to the BO. If brand was important Aquaman would have bombed coming directly after Justice League. 

 

Sure Marvel has done better overall than the DCEU but that has very little to do with the brand. It has to do with Marvel having made generally better recieved movies. Compare the rotten tomato scores and you see that except for a few movies the MCU movies have a higher score compared to the DCEU movies. When a DCEU movie gets well recieved it also earns a lot of money see Wonder Woman and Aquaman for example. If Shazam is a good movie audiences will go and watch it.

The Marvel brand allows characters like Ant-Man to be successful. It also leads to Captain Marvel being highly anticipated

 

Brand power may not be everything but it definitely helps

 

Also the 'DCEU' isn't even a brand. Not until WB/DC officially acknowledges it and start marketing their movies with it

Edited February 3, 2019 by DlAMONDZ

[reddevil19]

6 hours ago, LordNox said:

Brand is overrated when it comes to the BO. If brand was important Aquaman would have bombed coming directly after Justice League. 

 

Sure Marvel has done better overall than the DCEU but that has very little to do with the brand. It has to do with Marvel having made generally better recieved movies. Compare the rotten tomato scores and you see that except for a few movies the MCU movies have a higher score compared to the DCEU movies. When a DCEU movie gets well recieved it also earns a lot of money see Wonder Woman and Aquaman for example. If Shazam is a good movie audiences will go and watch it.

Except the MCU brand built over the first few movies, which instilled loyalty has meant all their movies, even the weak ones, had a better reception than similar movies in standalone or competing universes. Brand is EXTREMELY important. You think the success derives from quality, and I agree with that to an extent, but once the MCU brand became too big to fail, those lines have blurred and it's more a case of everyone equating MCU with quality (whether that's valid or not is besides the point - they got there first and are dominating the market, so well done for them) and with box office success, before the movie is even released. That comes from them building the brand and gaining the audiences' trust.

 

DC don't necessarily have the brand recognition, but they have the far more recognizable frontline characters (even with the success of the MCU) - they just fell behind with the universe building and the mishandling of their movies caused derision, while the competitor was going form strength to strength. So the overall brand did suffer because of that and they will need a string of well-received movies (even 200 million earners, if well received, with smaller budgets, will be doing what needs to be done for them).

[TMP]

I don't get why they're waiting so long for trailer 2. Mid-Feb feels incredibly close to release, might be hard to get awareness up that high with how close the film will be

[lorddemaxus]

4 minutes ago, TMP said:

I don't get why they're waiting so long for trailer 2. Mid-Feb feels incredibly close to release, might be hard to get awareness up that high with how close the film will be

Their very peculiar new marketing strategy has worked in the past year and they are the only studio without a flop in 2018 (even 15:17 to Paris probably made back its budget). Also, Aquaman had its first trailer closer to release than Shazam and its second trailer (the 5 minute long one) released around the same time from the movie's release as the Shazam trailer will from its respective movie.

Edited February 3, 2019 by lorddemaxus

[LordNox]

1 hour ago, reddevil19 said:

Except the MCU brand built over the first few movies, which instilled loyalty has meant all their movies, even the weak ones, had a better reception than similar movies in standalone or competing universes. Brand is EXTREMELY important. You think the success derives from quality, and I agree with that to an extent, but once the MCU brand became too big to fail, those lines have blurred and it's more a case of everyone equating MCU with quality (whether that's valid or not is besides the point - they got there first and are dominating the market, so well done for them) and with box office success, before the movie is even released. That comes from them building the brand and gaining the audiences' trust.

 

DC don't necessarily have the brand recognition, but they have the far more recognizable frontline characters (even with the success of the MCU) - they just fell behind with the universe building and the mishandling of their movies caused derision, while the competitor was going form strength to strength. So the overall brand did suffer because of that and they will need a string of well-received movies (even 200 million earners, if well received, with smaller budgets, will be doing what needs to be done for them).

Well we will just have to wait and see. If Shazam makes Ant-man money at the BO then brand power will have proven to be overrated. Given that the general audience will then have shown to be as likely to go to smaller DCEU movies like they are to go to smaller MCU movies.

[Chaz]

I just can’t help but feel like the DC movies are still bigger than most of the Marvel movies because the characters are more well known. Shazam (Captain Marvel) was rivaling Superman in popularity at one point, and Aquaman may have been known as a joke in some aspects, but people still knew that character in popular culture. 

 

Ant-Man was never known outside of the comics and a couple of short-lived Avengers cartoons.

Edited February 3, 2019 by Chaz

[Darth Lehnsherr]

Individual characters Marvel and DC for films are more or less on par (though let's see when DC goes for their really obscure characters). What remains to be seen is whether DC can ever replicate the worldwide popularity of the Avengers films. 

[Chaz]

Batman has two billion dollar solo films.

[2kt09]

1 hour ago, Chaz said:

I just can’t help but feel like the DC movies are still bigger than most of the Marvel movies because the characters are more well known. Shazam (Captain Marvel) was rivaling Superman in popularity at one point, and Aquaman may have been known as a joke in some aspects, but people still knew that character in popular culture.

That baby boomer generation is not a good measure of gauging interest. 

 

57 minutes ago, Darth Lehnsherr said:

though let's see when DC goes for their really obscure characters

like Jonah Hex? Watchmen?

 

 

[MrGlass2]

6 hours ago, DlAMONDZ said:

The Marvel brand allows characters like Ant-Man to be successful.

Very poor example, Ant-Man continues to define the floor for the genre. Maybe you meant Black Panther:

 

1     Avengers: Infinity War     BV     $2,048.4     $678.8     33.1%     $1,369.5     66.9%
2     Black Panther     BV     $1,346.9     $700.1     52.0%     $646.9     48.0%
5     Aquaman     WB     $1,098.3     $320.0     29.1%     $778.3     70.9%
6     Venom (2018)     Sony     $855.0     $213.5     25.0%     $641.5     75.0%
9     Deadpool 2     Fox     $765.9     $318.5     41.6%     $447.4     58.4%
11     Ant-Man and the Wasp     BV     $622.7     $216.6     34.8%     $406.0     65.2%

 

1 hour ago, LordNox said:

Well we will just have to wait and see. If Shazam makes Ant-man money

No need to wait and see, Aquaman made almost 2x Ant-Man with a similar budget. What does that tell us?

[Chaz]

11 minutes ago, 2kt09 said:

That baby boomer generation is not a good measure of gauging interest. 

 

 

It’s not. But it means the character still has more recognition than others at some level.

[2kt09]

 

6 minutes ago, Chaz said:

It’s not. But it means the character still has more recognition than others at some level.

But that's also when he went by the other name. The marketing speaks for itself in how much folks are riled up. I'm just waiting for the reveal of other characters, so I can boost my projection...unless they want to keep that under wraps before release.

[SliverS]

22 hours ago, Neucentro said:

I don't think awareness is high on this one. Shazam isn't Aquaman, which received plenty of exposure from Justice League.  This needs a stronger marketing push.

Isn't JL hurt Aquaman early campaign？JL     is only 230/650M.Aquaman shouldnt be more than JL.Many people think Aquaman won't be a hit after JL

[DlAMONDZ]

10 minutes ago, SliverS said:

Isn't JL hurt Aquaman early campaign？JL     is only 230/650M.Aquaman shouldnt be more than JL.Many people think Aquaman won't be a hit after JL

Yes. Appearing in a flop like JL was one of the reasons why people deemed it a flop before release

 

I agree on Shazam needing a bigger push tho. WB's DC marketing post SS has been lacking imo

[MrGlass2]

7 minutes ago, DlAMONDZ said:

Yes. Appearing in a flop like JL was one of the reasons why people deemed it a flop before release  

That is because some people just assumed Aquaman would be hurt by JL. The $1.1B evidence points to the exact opposite happening. Aquaman was obviously helped by the marketing for JL selling the character one year in advance, and also by some people liking JL or least Momoa.

10 minutes ago, DlAMONDZ said:

I agree on Shazam needing a bigger push tho.

Because Shazam didn't appear in JL.