What was ‘Blue Beetle’s budget and how does it compare to other DC movies?

We’ve still got another two years to go before James Gunn’s shiny new DCU launches with summer 2025’s Superman: Legacy, but DC is still pumping out the movies that were already in the works before the old DCEU was officially laid out to pasture. Next up, we have Blue Beetle, a movie that might be less, well, flashy than The Flash but nonetheless deserves attention for being the first DC film to feature a Latino superhero in the lead.

Originally developed as an HBO Max Original, Blue Beetle ultimately impressed Warner Bros. brass enough to be boosted to a full-blown theatrical release, with the vehicle for Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Maridueña hitting theaters this August 18. The first cinematic outing for teen hero Jaime Reyes wasn’t intended to be a major tentpole release, then, so you might be wondering what its budget is and where that falls in the wider picture of WB’s other recent DC productions.

Blue Beetle cost more than Shazam! 2 but less than half as much as Black Adam

Blue Beetle is believed to have a production budget of $120 million, not including marketing costs. Surprisingly, despite the movie’s streaming origins, it still isn’t the cheapest DC flick of 2023, as that honor still goes to Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which had a slim reported budget of $80-$100 million. Unfortunately, though, that penny-pinching price-tag still didn’t do the Zachary Levi sequel any favors as it failed to recoup even that low figure at the box office.

Nevertheless, the stakes are not as high for Blue Beetle as they were for both The Flash and Black Adam, as the film cost almost half as much as the former and an even lesser percentage of the latter. The Flash put WB back around $220 million, even though it’s unlikely to cross $300 million globally, while Dwayne Johnson’s failed franchise-starter cost a whopping $260 million, bringing home just shy of $400 million worldwide.

As per box office predictions, Blue Beetle is headed for a $30 million domestic opening weekend, which is lower than The Flash but, again, due to its suppressed budget that’s actually not too shabby, especially considering the strikes affecting how WB can promote the movie. Blue Beetle is still a long way from being a bonafide hit, but it really shouldn’t go down as one of the studio’s most costly endeavors of the year, whatever happens.