The Xolo Maridueña starrer Blue Beetle’s slow box office run has already caused quite some damage to James Gunn’s new DCU. Only time will tell, how ultimately the new universe will end up shaping under the mentorship of Gunn and Peter Safran. Despite its underwhelming box office performance, Blue Beetle has garnered surprisingly positive reviews overall. While a $100 million budget for a Warner Bros. movie might appear modest, the film has had difficulty justifying even that expenditure. Some argue that the hefty $100 million budget might have been an excessive overestimation of the movie’s needs, and thus will eventually fail to make any profits for the studio.
This has led many to speculate about what lies ahead in the aftermath of the tumultuous DCU, and the question that arises is whether it will manage to make a recovery.
Is Blue Beetle a Flop? How Much Has It Earned Till Now?
While it’s premature to definitively declare a verdict at this early stage, signs suggest that Blue Beetle may indeed join the extensive list of DC movies that have flopped over the years. As of now, the film has accumulated $60 million domestically, with box office expert Luiz Fernando, estimating it to reach around $70-$75 million in its home market. Its global performance has also been lackluster, with a meager $106 million collected so far against a $100 million budget.
While the movie has managed to outperform the underwhelming DC film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, it remains disheartening to witness its overall performance. This places the film as the 11th highest-earning in the domestic run for the comic book series, but it ranks last when evaluated on a global scale. However, on a more positive note, critics on Rotten Tomatoes have awarded the film a 78% rating, offering a glimmer of hope for potential recovery from the setbacks it faced during its debut week.
Will James Gunn’s New DCU Suffer Because of This?
Despite James Gunn’s upcoming DCU era, Superman: Legacy, slated to kick off in 2025, Blue Beetle has already left its mark, and not in a positive way. While the film doesn’t belong to Gunn’s inaugural chapter of the new era titled Gods and Monsters, the character of the Blue Beetle is the first to usher in this fresh era. This underwhelming performance, although somewhat anticipated following The Flash, undeniably tarnishes the franchise’s already tainted reputation.
Nonetheless, die-hard fans haven’t completely lost hope, and James Gunn remains undeterred. There is a plethora of enthusiastic new arrivals eagerly awaiting to kickstart this ushering of a new era that primarily rewinds the clock, aiming to rescue DC from the brink of ruin. It’s fair to assume that people do still have hope for the upcoming slate of movies scheduled to hit theaters in the coming years. Only time will unveil the destiny of this superhero franchise in the years ahead.
Blue Beetle is currently in theaters.
Source: Variety
