AI Reveals The Truth About Why Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Is A Box Office Flop
ChatGPT blamed Black Widow and Covid on the box office disaster that is Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which is inaccurate, to say the least.
Nobody’s showing up in theaters to see Shazam: Fury of the Gods. It had an okay opening weekend, making $30 million domestically, but then people just… stopped seeing it, with box office figures that seem similar to those brought in by Scream VI — even though Scream VI came out two weeks earlier. Yahoo! Entertainment asked our all-knowing AI overlord ChatGPT, which says it knows why: the ongoing pandemic and the fact that it was released at the same time as the Marvel film Black Widow.
For those who spend pretty much no time following comic book movies, it’s worth noting that Black Widow did not, in fact, release alongside Shazam. Rather, it released in July 2021, which is a little bit early to affect the box office figures of a March 2023 release. Rather, the Shazam sequel was released alongside the horribly-reviewed Adam Driver sci-fi thriller 65, the comedy A Snowy Day in Oakland, and the Willem Dafoe thriller Inside.
Of course, despite being released back when people were still taking measures to avoid COVID-19, Black Widow absolutely demolished Shazam 2 at the box office. It made $39 million domestically on its opening night, which is more than the latest David F. Sandberg-directed superhero film has made over the course of a week.
The great thing about ChatGPT is you can always call it out on its nonsense, in response to which it will apologize, blame its shortcomings on the fact that it’s an AI language model, and generally agree with whatever it is you say. Yahoo! Entertainment did just that, and ChatGPT did just that. It was also questioned about whether Covid can really still be to blame for Shazam 2’s poor showing in theaters, but the all-knowing AI stuck to its guns on that one, saying (somewhat accurately) that the long-term effects of the pandemic have made the movie industry far less predictable.
When asked about the mixed reviews having anything to do with the Shazam sequel’s failure to attract an audience, ChatGPT showed off another of its charming qualities: being super wishy-washy about anything and everything. It said it’s “possible” that it caused it, but said it’s only one factor that can influence its performance.
ChatGPT was also asked about the concept of ‘superhero fatigue” — the idea that maybe audiences don’t want to see seven films and half a dozen shows every year about colorfully-costumed superhumans fighting bad guys. ChatGPT once again fulfilled its role in being the most convenient way to be told “maybe,” saying that it “might be a factor.” It then went on to blame COVID-19 again.
It did, however, refuse to believe Zachary Levi’s claim that sabotage by Dwayne Johnson had anything to do with Shazam 2‘s failure, using the simple logic that Dwayne Johnson wasn’t involved with the movie, so that he couldn’t have affected its box office results. By that logic, COVID-19 must have had an executive producer credit. ChatGPT also didn’t think that Black Adam had come out yet, and when called out on that mistake… it apologized and blamed its shortcomings on the fact that it’s an AI language model.
