Shazam Review, Collection: Hit the Sky as A Truly Good Movie

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According to Box Office Mojo, early preview screenings for Shazam! earned $3.3 million on Saturday, when the film screened at 1,200 theaters nationwide. Though the movie us set to release in the next month, but still being the preview screening the movie has earned a top spot over the Aquaman. Shazam isn’t the first DCEU movie that’s enjoyable, but it’s arguably the first one that’s truly good. I recognize in retrospect that my positive take on 2017’s Justice League put me in the minority, but even if you don’t count that big team-up, the DC film universe has been steadily rising in quality, from the decent Wonder Woman to the goofy, fun Aquaman.

Collection by Shazam:

Over the past few months, some high-profile films have been showed weeks ahead of their official premieres at nationwide preview screenings. The practice has been successful with these earlier releases, but it looks like Shazam! scored better results than any of the other previews.

This surpasses the $2.6 million preview screening of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and $2.9 million earned by fellow DC blockbuster Aquaman, which held a similar preview last year through Amazon Prime and went on to earn over $1 billion at the international box office.

Who or What is Shazam?

Shazam is the story of Billy Batson, a troubled orphan with a heart of gold who’s granted magic powers by an ancient wizard. By saying the word “Shazam,” Billy (Asher Angel) can transform into a full grown adult (Zachary Levi) with the combined powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. I won’t spoil what those powers are, because several of the movie’s best scenes are spent with Billy and his foster brother Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) as they experiment to find out exactly what Shazam is capable of.

Shazam Review:

Thanks to Shazam, DC Films can now argue that their solo superhero movies are more likely than not to be high-quality popcorn entertainments. Wonder Woman was great, Aquaman was terrific gonzo-bananas fantasy fun and now Shazam is a shockingly moving coming-of-age melodrama. Say what you will about Man of Steel, but the Zack Snyder Superman movie wasn’t a poorly made movie. Moreover, all seven DC Films flicks are essentially unique unto themselves (a first contact story/Exodus parable, a World War I drama, a superhero-versus-superhero opera, a Lord of the Rings/Star Wars fantasy, a Saturday morning cartoon team-up flick, etc.). God help me, I’m now actually looking forward to Joker.

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