The new Zachary Levi movie is dividing critics and audiences. The star, who is perhaps best known for playing Shazam in the DC Extended Universe movies, has starred in a variety of other well-regarded тιтles. After breaking out in his role as the тιтle character in the NBC spy comedy Chuck, which ran for five seasons between 2007 and 2012, he went on to star in movies including Disney’s animated movie Tangled, which was nominated for an Oscar, and Richard Linklater’s semi-autobiographical Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, which has a Certified Fresh 91% Rotten Tomatoes score.
However, in 2023 his career took a critical and commercial downturn. Although he voiced Rocky in the Netflix stop-motion animated sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which had solid reviews, he kicked off a streak of Rotten Tomatoes splats for his live-action movies that year. In addition to starring in the poorly reviewed theatrical flops Shazam! Fury of the Gods (49%) and Harold and the Purple Crayon (27%), his live-action streaming тιтle Spy Kids: Armageddon (56%) also suffered.
The Unbreakable Boy Is Winning Over Audiences
Its Rotten Tomatoes Scores Show A Huge Divide
The Unbreakable Boy has now started connecting with audiences in spite of its bad reviews. The new movie, which stars Levi as the father of a boy (Jacob Laval) who has brittle bone disease and is on the autism spectrum, is an inspirational drama that was shelved after being pulled from the schedule a week before its original release in late 2022 without any explanation. Now that the Unbreakable Boy release has arrived, it has divided critics with a 48% Rotten Tomatoes score and been met with a lack of theatrical enthusiasm, debuting at No. 8 on the domestic chart.
The Unbreakable Boy is projected to debut at $2.4 million or lower, which is less than one-fifth of what its fellow new release The Monkey is projected to earn at the domestic box office.
Now Rotten Tomatoes has received more than 100 verified user ratings for the Levi drama. This is enough for an audience score to be calculated, and The Unbreakable Boy has earned a near-perfect 95% score on the Popcornmeter with an average score of 4.7 out of 5. While this score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, if it stays above 90% and pᴀsses a certain threshold, the movie will officially become Verified H๏τ in spite of critics’ indifference to it.
Currently, this marks Zachary Levi’s third-best audience score of all time, behind only the 2009 comedy thriller Stuntmen (97%) and the 2021 sports drama American Underdog (98% and Verified H๏τ).
What This Means For The Unbreakable Boy
Audiences May Be Self-Selecting
Although its theatrical prospects are still unclear, the Zachary Levi movie seems to be benefiting from a factor that tends to boost inspirational and faith-based dramas. Even though their audiences tend to be smaller than major blockbusters, they attract the people who are most likely to respond well to their content. It seems that the fan base most likely to be devoted to The Unbreakable Boy is already finding it, as was the case previously with movies like I Still Believe (50% from critics, 98% from audiences) and Overcomer (59% from critics, 98% from audiences).
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
