SHAZAM! Thundered To $3.3 Million in Paid Previews, Surpassing AQUAMAN!

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It looks like Shazam! may indeed be a real-life magic word for WB and DC! According to Deadline, Shazam! earned a huge $3.3 million in early paid previews. To give you context, in similar screenings Aquaman earned $2.9 million and it ended up becoming the highest grossing DC picture to date with $1.14 billion.

That’s not to say that Shazam! will be as big of a hit as Aquaman, of course. Because it does face certain hurdles. With movies like Captain Marvel, Us, Dumbo, Hellboy, Avengers: Endgame, and Pet Sematary all jockeying for attention through April, Shazam! will have a pretty crowded landscape to contend with. It remains to be seen if it can use above the box office tide coming its way and become a crowd pleasing box office hit like Aquaman did when it opened against Mary Poppins Returns and Bumblebee.

All of that said, it doesn’t appear there is much to worry about as Shazam! seems to be winning with critics with a Rotten Tomatoes score that is in the 90% range and fans everywhere are raving about it on social media. As we saw with Aquaman, there are plenty of people who have an appetite for multiple films, especially as these superhero movies become can’t miss cultural events. With a reported budget of under $100 million, Shazam! doesn’t need to earn $1 billion to be a huge hit for WB/DC.

Deadline is still tracking Shazam! at a $45 million+ opening weekend, while Forbes believes it will open a little higher at $50 million+. There is no doubt these fan screenings help with word of mouth. Aquaman‘s original tracking was $65 million, then it ballooned to $80 million after it’s incredible opening weekend in China, before setting into a $67 million with a total of $72 million when counting previews. It went on to become the second highest grossing DCU film yet with $334 million at the domestic box office and the highest grossing DC movie ever world wide with $1.14 million.

SOURCE: Deadline