Even as some superhero movie cynics were ready to declare Blue Beetle an overall flop following an underperforming opening weekend, the question remained open for the more optimistic among us considering its second-weekend performance could tell us more about whether the movie has legs.
We now have the data to prove that Blue Beetle still has a chance to make an impression on moviegoers since it broke an impressive DC record, trumping even 2022’s The Batman in one particular area. You see, it turns out that Blue Beetle had a second-weekend drop of only -48.9 percent, which is a rarity for any movie — let alone a DC film. That ranks Blue Beetle #5 on the list of DCEU movies ranked by the lowest second-weekend box office drop and one notch above The Batman, as Luiz Fernando pointed out on X (formerly Twitter).
Blue Beetle has a lot to overcome in terms of being a success in theaters, such as lack of name recognition among movie-goers, being part of the tainted brand that is the DCEU, and frankly going out to the movies just being too darn expensive these days in general. Case in point: anecdotal reports came flooding in on National Cinema Day that Blue Beetle had a lot of sold-out shows due to the much less expensive $4 price tag.
On the other hand, some tell-tale signs make us believe Blue Beetle could turn out to be an underdog success story. For instance, director Ángel Manuel Soto had specifically focused on not overly relying on CGI to tell his story, which has been a common pitfall of other would-be blockbuster flops from earlier this year, such as DC’s own The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Blue Beetle also has a much more modest budget, at $120 million, than those films, giving it a shorter runway to profitability, as we previously pointed out.
If you’re curious about all the buzz, check out Blue Beetle at a theater near you.
Published: Aug 28, 2023 09:40 am