Zachary Levi Slams Hollywood Garbage Movies
Shazam! franchise star, Zachary Levi, is calling on movie fans “to actively not choose the garbage” when it comes to what they’re spending their ticket money on at the theater. While attending the Chicago Fan Expo on Saturday (as per Entertainment Weekly), the Chuck star, as part of voicing his solidarity for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, slammed the studios for their greedy tactics of putting out “garbage” when the fans deserve more. “They don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys,” Levi said, pointing to those at the top rushing out as much content as they can to get butts in the seats and watch box office numbers go up.
“They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money.”
Zachary Levi
Speaking about a situation that every cinema fan is sure to know, Zachary Levi pointed to the old bait and switch of audiences catching an exciting trailer only to rush to the theater and be disappointed. “They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money,” Levi said of this trick.
Calling on fans to be the ones to make the change in how productions are made, Levi continued by encouraging the crowd to “not go to the garbage,” something that he believes will send a message to those studio execs who continue to push out the underperforming and critically panned content.
Shazam At The Box Office
Zachary Levi’s comments should come as a surprise to anyone who followed the release of his latest film, Shazam: Fury of the Gods. When it comes to critically panned, the title was one of the most hated ones of the 2023 year so far.
Bringing in $134 million at the global box office, the sequel to 2019’s Shazam! barely crawled its way past its production budget which was in the $90-100 million range. Along with Levi, the film combined the old with the new, bringing many familiar faces back from the first film as well as new-to-the-story characters.
Included in that lineup, Zachary Levi starred opposite Asher Angel, Adam Brody, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Geagan Good, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou, and Grace Fulton.
“I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage — they don’t care enough to actually make it great for you guys. They don’t
Zachary Levi
From the start, Shazam: Fury of the Gods was walking on thin ice. While 2022 saw the successful release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, it also saw the shaky debut of Dwayne Johnson’s titular anti-hero in Black Adam, with the latter initially set to bring in a new lineup of content to the fold.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on what camp you’re in), Peter Safran and James Gunn would take over the studio at the end of the year, making major changes that would ultimately affect the box office outcome of Zachary Levi’s Shazam 2.
Pulling an absolute overhaul that saw the end (for now) of Henry Cavill’s reign as Superman, by the time Shazam: Fury of the Gods came out, fans were confused about what the film’s point was and how it would fit in with the next batch of stories coming from the comic book universe.
While he had his own thoughts and ill-will toward the studio and how it handled the marketing for the sequel in his superhero franchise, Zachary Levi’s latest comments at the Chicago Fan Expo over the weekend almost undoubtedly closed the case on the chances of seeing another Shazam-centered flick at any time in the future.
