‘I’m sure for Warner Bros., there’s pressure’: ‘Blue Beetle’ star doesn’t want to be a ‘prisoner to the numbers’ as the DCU struggles

It’s easy for Xolo Maridueña not to concern himself with the box office numbers when James Gunn and Peter Safran have confirmed the headliner of this weekend’s Blue Beetle will continue on in the DCU, but the same can’t be said for Warner Bros.

After all, ever since the beginning of the pandemic the franchise has been seriously struggling at the box office, with Black Adam the shared universe’s highest-grossing release to hit theaters in the space of half a decade despite failing to crack $400 million globally, immediately leading to star and producer Dwayne Johnson’s exile.

In an interview with Variety, though, Maridueña’s slip of the tongue saw him admit that the pressure is on WB to try and turn the tide in terms of ticket sales, and in a fortuitous stroke of luck the projections for Blue Beetle have risen by almost 300 percent in the last few weeks alone.

“I’m sure for Warner Bros., there’s pressure. That sounded a little snarky. Yes, of course, I want this to be the biggest movie of all time. And I truly feel like it is a worldwide movie. I think it should be a box office smash, but at the same time, there’s box office smashes that aren’t the best [movies], and vice versa. I don’t want to be a prisoner to the numbers.”

Regardless of how high Blue Beetle ends up flying, the Battalion will at the very least be able to sleep soundly in the knowledge that the leading man will be back to suit up and soar into the next iteration of the DCU.