'Blue Beetle' Wins the Weekend But Still Disappoints

Blue Beetle was able to move past the month-old Barbie movie to take the top spot at the box office this weekend, but Blue Beetle's debut was still a disappointment. Its weak opening weekend is just the latest in a long string of underwhelming performances by superhero movies over the past year. The genre that onced ruled Hollywood is showing signs that it may have run its course. Read on for details.

Via Variety.

“Blue Beetle” has dethroned “Barbie” at the domestic box office. The latest DC superhero adventure claimed the No. 1 spot despite a softer-than-expected debut of $25.4 million.

At the international box office, “Blue Beetle,” starring Xolo Maridueña as the alien symbiote, added $18 million from 63 markets. With $43 million globally, it’s one of the softest starts in the history of the DC Cinematic Universe.

After four consecutive weekends in first place, “Barbie” landed on her feet at second place with $21.5 million from 4,003 theaters, a huge result at this point in its theatrical run. After five weeks of release, Greta Gerwig’s fantasy-comedy has generated $567 million and will soon overtake Universal’s animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($574 million) as the biggest domestic release of the year.

“Blue Beetle” cost more than $100 million to produce and many millions more to promote, so it’ll need to defy the box office odds to justify its price tag. Reviews and word of mouth may not do much to fill seats; the film has a “B+” CinemaScore and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. In a note to press, Warner Bros. suggested the impact of Tropical Storm Hilary “is anticipated to be significant, particularly in Southern California where the film is over‐indexing.”

It’s the third DC film in 2023 to tumble out of the gate after “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” ($30.1 million in March) and “The Flash” ($55 million in June). Even 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” which debuted simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, enjoyed a bigger start with $26.2 million. But that film — as well as “Shazam 2” and “The Flash,” which flopped in their theatrical runs — were based on higher-profile characters compared to Blue Beetle.

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, the film centers on college graduate Jaime Reyes, who gets chosen to become a symbiotic host to an ancient alien biotech relic that turns him into the superhero known as Blue Beetle. A fourth DC adaptation, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” is slated to release in December before the studio’s new chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran take the faltering comic book universe in an entirely new direction.

“After a dozen nearly flawless years, the [comic book] genre has performed unevenly during the last 3-and-a-half years,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “We’re going to know more about superheroes in November and December,” he adds in reference to “Aquaman 2” as well as Disney’s sequel “The Marvels” on Nov. 10. “Those two films will determine the state of superheroes in 2023 and going forward.”

Get the rest of the story at Variety.