‘Blue Beetle’ may have bombed, but it still opened higher at the box office than Dwayne Johnson’s DC debut

The rotten run of luck to have plagued the DCU over the last half a decade continued after Blue Beetle opened to a soft $25.4 million at the domestic box office, although one sliver of a silver lining is that the most recent projections indicated as much.

While it’s never nice to see an acclaimed origin story for a brand new superhero fall flat at the very first hurdle, the Battalion will be able to draw solace and some shred of comfort from the fact James Gunn has already confirmed he’s got plans for Jaime Reyes when his overhaul of the mythology is set in motion.

Another fascinating feather in the cap of Blue Beetle is that it did manage to earn more in its opening weekend than Dwayne Johnson’s DC debut, even if we’re not talking about Black Adam. In case you forgot – which is fine because a lot of people probably have – DC League of Super-Pets landed in July of last year, and hauled in a so-so $23 million across its first three days on domestic screens.

Sure, Blue Beetle is miles behind Black Adam‘s $67 million tally, but nobody was ever expecting it to fly that high. Let’s not overlook that as mediocre as Super-Pets proved to be, it did find The Rock backed by an all-star supporting cast that featured Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, and Keanu goddamned Reeves as Batman, so it’s an achievement worth shouting about regardless of how poor the numbers are compared to the franchise’s recent live-action slate.