Does ‘Blue Beetle’ Have Any Shot of Dodging the DC Box Office Slump?
A year of box office woes for Warner Bros. has given way to a month of spectacular success with “Barbie,” which has grossed $1.18 billion and counting. But now the studio is releasing “Blue Beetle,” another title from Hollywood’s most struggling franchise, DC.
It was only two months ago that “The Flash” entered theaters with the full confidence of Warner Bros. and high praise from new DC Studios chief James Gunn, only to go bust with just $268.4 million grossed worldwide. Alongside “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” it was the third straight DC film to fail to gross over $400 million worldwide, fourth if you count animated spin-off “DC League of Super-Pets.”
While Gunn is working on the upcoming DC reboot with his next film “Superman: Legacy” set for a summer 2025 release, Warner Bros. still has “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” to release, with both films hitting theaters following a streak of DC films that were tepidly received by audiences and have diminished interest in the franchise, at least in its current state.
The tracking for “Blue Beetle” reflects this, as projections for the film are settling at $28 million-$32 million. That would be a similar result to the $30.1 million opening “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” earned this past spring before crashing to a $57.6 million domestic/$133.8 million global box office total.
But while “Shazam 2” suffered from weak reviews, critics have been much more favorable to “Blue Beetle” with an early 87% Rotten Tomatoes score at the time this article published.
Those positive reviews are a boost for any film, but are especially needed for “Blue Beetle” as it went through pre-release marketing without promotional support from its cast due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. Per guild rules, Warner Bros. has had to go without the film’s cast promoting the film in interviews, press junkets and events like San Diego Comic-Con, which took place a week after the strike began on July 14.
When introducing a new superhero to the big screen, especially one that doesn’t have widespread familiarity, it’s important to have the actor playing that hero out there to spread the word and to get audiences interested. Not having Ezra Miller to promote “The Flash” because of their public scandals was a factor in that film’s box office failure. Sony has delayed the release of “Kraven the Hunter” nearly a full year because the studio feels that it needs lead Aaron Taylor-Johnson at the center of its promotional campaign.
When Marvel Studios had Simu Liu and Awkwafina do a full press tour for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in 2021, it was rewarded with the film becoming the first movie since the pandemic to pass the $200 million mark in domestic grosses. Considering the still-recovering nature of the box office at the time, it was a strong result that showed how Liu was successful in getting moviegoers to embrace him as a leading man.
“Blue Beetle,” on the other hand, is unable to have its star, Xolo Maridueña, out there to promote his film in press junkets and in social media posts to the millions of followers he’s built through his work on “Cobra Kai.” Without that, the film is losing out on a vital avenue for building awareness and interest among the key 18-35 demographic.
The only way out for “Blue Beetle” is the same path for any other film with low buzz: post-release word of mouth. The strong reviews from critics, which are just now getting published a day before preview screenings, are a good start.
If the film meets its $30 million opening projections and gets even stronger marks from moviegoers than it has from critics, it may have a chance to have a run similar to the 2021 film “Free Guy,” which had little buzz prior to its $28.3 million opening but legged out considerably after winning over the masses, going on to gross $121 million domestic and $336 million worldwide.
“Blue Beetle” was made on a cheaper budget than “The Flash” with a production spend said to be in the range of $105 million-$120 million (it was initially produced as a direct-to-HBO Max title). At that range, a global theatrical run similar to “Free Guy” or the first “Shazam!” ($367.7 million in 2019) would be a mild theatrical success. Given the current state of DC, even mild success would be welcome as James Gunn sets the stage for brighter days farther down the road.
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