DCEU’s struggle at the box office is not new and even James Gunn’s magic would require a lot more power to alter the DCEU curse and save the sinking ship of the studio. Also, it would be interesting to see the DC boss’ tolerance level.
Following the epic failure of one of the highly anticipated DC movies, The Flash starring Ezra Miller, Angel Manuel Soto-directed Blue Beetle marked its theatrical debut on 18 August 2023 and now the movie has joined the $100 million club.
Also read: Canceling Snyderverse Hits James Gunn Hard as Blue Beetle Suffers Catastrophic Box Office Drop
Will Blue Beetle’s $100 Million Save the Movie?
As Xolo Maridueña led the Latino superhero movie Blue Beetle has crossed $100 million at the box office, the question immediately hits, Will the $100 million save the movie or the likes of DC? The answer is a resounding ‘no’ as the total collection so far is still far from recovering the cost of making the movie.
Of course, Blue Beetle was a gamble on the studio’s part as it introduced a very fresh character from a different background. From a critical point of view, the movie already achieved the status of a successful movie but only the box office collection can rescue the studio. Understandably, superhero movies are by default expensive, Blue Beetle’s production budget was $104 million, and the movie would require $208 million to recover the cost of the making of the movie.
Now, DCEU has staled a lot of projects including James Gunn’s very own Superman: Legacy, and DC and fans kept waiting for the big success of a new project after the dominating success of Aquaman which has been the highest-grossing DC movie of all time.
James Gunn And Blue Beetle
Gunn’s involvement in Blue Beetle was not significant as previously thought, at least, confirmed by the director Angel Manuel Soto. Speaking to Total Film, the director revealed that the boss duo of DC Gunn and Peter Safran allowed creative freedom to the director by refraining from much involvement in the project. “The studio always, generally, has their hands on it,” Soto shared.
“As far as the essence of the story, [James Gunn and Peter Safran] liked what we were doing and they respected the vision and what we were trying to do with the film. They really did appreciate the fresh take, the nostalgic factor of how we start the film by taking the audience to see the family and fall in love with them for a prologue-of-sorts.”
Blue Beetle has now seen the critical success and it would be interesting to see if the studio allows the character to have any more standalone. Certainly, Reyes has room in the DCEU to appear in several projects as Gunn earlier confirmed the character’s future in the universe.
Source: CBR
