Blue Beetle Set To Be DC’s Biggest Box Office Flop
If industry projections are anything to go by, DC’s newest superhero offering, Blue Beetle, is going to crash and burn faster than The Flash. According to Deadline the newest offering from Warner Bros.’ capes and tights division is currently tracking at roughly $30 million in its opening weekend—a far cry from The Flash‘s $55 million opening weekend haul. It’s even less than the disappointing $30.1 million Shazam! Fury of the Gods managed to scrounge up upon release.
Box office predictions expect Blue Beetle to bring in less money opening weekend than this year’s other DC films, The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
On the upside, Blue Beetle, arguably the only mainstream superhero movie ever to cater to the Latino/Hispanic population, is tracking well with its target demographic. Traditionally, movies aimed at Hispanic and Latino moviegoers receive a lot of walk-up business during their opening weekends, meaning that there’s a real chance that Blue Beetle could outperform projections when it comes out Aug. 18.
Warner Bros. has been doing all it can to get the word out about Blue Beetle running trailers for the film in front of both Barbie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. On top of that, TV spots for the movie have been running on ABC, Univision, and NBC during NBA games, America’s Got Talent, and even Celebrity Family Feud. If people aren’t aware of the movie by now, they never will be.
Unfortunately, lack of awareness isn’t likely to be what hurts Blue Beetle‘s box office performance the most. Breaking the current DC curse will be Blue Beetle‘s biggest hurdle.
The studio started last year off strong with The Batman—a film that grossed close to $1 billion globally—but managed to squander that goodwill throughout the rest of 2022 with a merger that saw an almost completed Batgirl movie disappear from the face of the Earth and a new team take the reigns at DC and declare all upcoming projects non-canon.
Following that bombshell, Black Adam, a movie that was partially banking on a cameo from Henry Cavill’s Superman to generate interest, tanked at the box office.
Traditionally, movies aimed at Hispanic and Latino moviegoers receive a lot of walk-up business during their opening weekends, meaning that there’s a real chance that Blue Beetle could outperform projections when it comes out Aug. 18.
While co-head of the new DCU, James Gunn eventually did an about-face on Blue Beetle‘s canon status, the damage may have already been done. Following Gunn and Johnson’s publicly conflicting statements regarding Cavill’s continued portrayal of Superman in the rebooted DCU, fans haven’t been very enthusiastic about investing their time and attention in properties that they know aren’t going anywhere.
Gunn’s comments about Blue Beetle featuring the DCU’s first superhero but not being the DCU’s first movie have only added to fans’ confusion.
It would genuinely be a shame if the first major Hispanic superhero, Xolo Mariduena’s Jaimie Reyes, fails at the box office. Blue Beetle is an achievement in Hispanic and Latino representation, from its almost all-Latino cast to its Puerto Rican director, Angel Manuel Soto. If the movie underperforms, it could send the wrong message to Warner Bros. and DC.
Unfortunately, lack of awareness isn’t likely to be what hurts Blue Beetle‘s box office performance the most. Breaking the current DC curse will be Blue Beetle‘s biggest hurdle.
Since the execs at Warner Bros. Discovery are never going to admit their own meddling might have caused an avalanche of negative feelings in longtime fans, which in turn led to poor turnout at the box office, they’ll most likely be looking for a different reason to blame if Blue Beetles fails. Sadly, that scapegoat could very well be the movie’s Hispanic/Latino perspective.
We’ll have to wait and see if Blue Beetle falls below or exceeds expectations when the film makes its theatrical debut on August 18.
