James Gunn shows how it’s done with ‘Vol. 3’ global box office already 200% ahead of ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’

The age-old Marvel vs. DC debate has only intensified since James Gunn crossed the divide to evolve from the brains behind Guardians of the Galaxy to the creative overseer of the rival comic book company’s shared universe, and there’s a lot of work to do if he wants the latter to exist on the same playing field as the former.

For one thing, the division among the fandom has grown even deeper since he made the dismantling of the SnyderVerse one of his first orders of business, with Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck either out of the door or heading towards the exit. Then there’s the general apathy to some of the DCU’s more recent releases, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods standing out.

As the sequel to one of the franchise’s best-reviewed and most profitable movies ever, there were hopes David F. Sandberg’s second outing would at least come close to matching its predecessor on a critical and commercial level. Instead, Zachary Levi’s sophomore adventure cratered at the box office and wound up as one of the genre’s biggest-ever bombs.

To put things into perspective, Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has earned over $280 million at the global box office already despite only playing in theaters for a matter of days. On the other hand, Fury of the Gods could only struggle to $133 million in the space of nearly two months before heading to digital and VOD.

With Gunn at the helm, maybe an uptick in fortunes is on the cards, but either way it shows the vast gulf between Marvel and DC that he’ll be desperate to close.