‘Blue Beetle’ Early Box Office Predictions Are A Complete And Utter Disaster For WBD CEO David Zaslav, James Gunn, And Their DC Universe

John F. Trent |

Jul 20, 2023

Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle in Blue Beetle (2023), DC Studios

Early box office projections are here for the upcoming Blue Beetle film starring Xolo Maridueña and they look to be utter nightmare fuel for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, James Gunn, Peter Safran, and their DC Universe.

Box Office Pro predicts the film will only bring in between $12 million and $17 million in its opening domestic weekend. The outlet further notes the film will only gross between $27 million and $55 million in its entire theatrical run.

To put this in context, The Flash had an opening weekend of $55 million domestically. It’s gone on to gross $107.1 million domestically with its time in theaters quickly coming to an end.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods had a domestic opening weekend of $30.1 million. the film ended its domestic run at $57.6 million.

Black Adam, now a seemingly bright spot despite still being a financial failure, had a domestic opening weekend of $67 million and went on to gross $168.1 million.

Not only does it look like Blue Beetle will vastly underperform the last three DC films, it’s likely to lose a significant amount of money if this predictions hold true. TheWrap reports the film has an estimated budget of $120 million. In order for the film to break even it would need to make at least $300 million globally.

With a $55 million domestic run, that means it needs to bring in at least $245 million internationally. The Flash only took in $160.4 million internationally. Shazam! Fury of the Gods capped out at $74.5 million internationally, and Black Adam only did $223.1 million.

The film’s financials have become a barometer for the success of James Gunn’s upcoming DC Universe due to his own comments that the character of Blue Beetle is the first character to be part of the universe he and Peter Safran are attempting to shepherd into existence.

Gunn told Michael Rosenbaum on his YouTube show, “The first DCU character for sure is Blue Beetle, and the first full DCU movie is Superman.”

When he announced his DCU slate at the end of January, Gunn said, “And then to move into Blue Beetle, a fantastic film about a kid who is a marvelous part of the DCU.”

However, when he got to Superman: Legacy he said, “The big one, the true beginning of the DCU. This is called Superman: Legacy. This is being written by me. I’m in the middle of it. I’m having a great time doing it. And Superman will be released into theaters July 11, 2025.”

Following these comments by Gunn, Blue Beetle director Angel Manuel Soto told Total Film via Games Radar, “We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future instalments of the DCU.”

He elaborated, “But we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.”

Soto also teased he has plans to turn Blue Beetle into a trilogy and noted this first film is the first act in his hoped for saga.

He explained, “Our first movie, the way we wanted to do it, was always with the mentality that we wanted to do two more, at least. And taking the traditional three-act structure of a story, we wanted our first movie to practically be the first act of a saga.”

As for why these box office predictions are so low, Box Office Pro first notes what they believe are the film’s positives, “appeal to Latinx families could be notable, particularly with the back half of the summer and early fall seeing a relative lack of youth-friendly content hitting the big screen.” They also tout the DC brand saying it “has a modest strength of its own.”

As for the film’s negatives, they note, “audiences have become increasingly selective about which superhero films they spend money on in theaters” and “competition from mid-to-late summer family-friendly holdovers—like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Haunted Mansion—plus action films like Meg 2 and Gran Turismo, could diminish potential in the waning days of summer.”

Unsurprisingly, the outlet leaves out the first trailer sees George Lopez’s character describing Batman as a fascist.

It also does not include director Angel Manuel Soto’s comments about President Donald Trump and his wish for him to be assassinated. Soto also believes Puerto Rico is a slave colony.

The film is also being heavily marketed with identity politics. Soto confirmed that the movie features an illegal immigration allegory explaining to MovieMaker, “There is a history that exists before an ICE raid. A history that includes traveling miles, and danger, working hard, becoming a family, creating memories, and thinking that everything is going to be okay.”

“But all of a sudden, everything that you have fought for, everything that you have worked for, everything that you have built, is now burning. I needed the depiction to be triggering, because it’s the experience of many,” he continued.

This allegory is likely to have a racial component as well. Susan Sarandon, who plays Victoria Kord in the movie described her character as the representative of the “white military industrial complex.”

She told Jimmy Fallon, “What’s fabulous about [Blue Beetle] is it’s the first Latinx hero that has his own movie. Even better all of the Mexican — because his family is Mexican and all the actors were Mexican and it’s in Spanish so it’s subtitled.”

She then shared details about her character, Victoria Kord, “I’m, of course, the bad guy. I’m the white military industrial complex.”

“So I had a fabulous time because there’s nothing better than being bad,” she added.

Maridueña also informed Empire, “The goal was to create a movie for a young me and a young Angel [Manuel Soto, the film’s director,] that said, ‘Hey, man, someone who looks like you or comes from a similar background can be a superhero.”

He added, “The second thing was to open more doors for people like us. As fun as it is to get into this superhero world where everything is [dialled up to] 110 per cent, [it’s] the characters… that I’ve [most] related to.”

Interestingly, Soto appears to have understood that the inclusion of calling Batman a fascist and then lampooning possible moviegoers was a massive error. He recently begged potential viewers to give the film a chance while speaking with MovieMaker, “We always wanted to have fun with the way Rudy talks about other superheroes.”

He continued, “So to the people who got mad at it, give us a chance. We’re just trying to have fun with the characters that we love. And everybody in our movie loves Batman and Superman and Flash.”

“And of course, we have criticisms about all of them, as we all should,” Soto added. “But that doesn’t mean that we hate Batman. We love Batman.”

The film’s star Xolo Maridueña also shared his thoughts on the criticism of Lopez’s character describing Batman as a fascist, “F That!”

He elaborated, “Maybe Jaime and the audience don’t agree with Rudy, but you’re allowed to have your opinion. That’s okay.”

Maridueña then insinuated the line was included to rile up viewers, “If you felt some type of way about it, that was the point. So I think if you agree with it, if you don’t agree with it, it was placed there for a reason. And you know, all of the people who have their Batman shrines at home can keep them there and they don’t have to worry.”

But maybe the biggest turn off for this film is that it looks like an Iron Man knock-off. The only thing they really changed is that instead of Tony Stark in the suit, you basically have Spider-Man. And who really wants to go see what looks like an inferior film to one that came out 15 years ago?