James Gunn’s Redemption Arc Continues With Blue Beetle after The Flash: Breaks 2023 Record for a DC Movie
The Flash by DC Studios, which is now led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, was released in June as a part of DCEU and was predicted to do well at the box office, but sadly it bombed and had mixed reviews from both the public and the reviewers. The Flash ended up becoming one of the biggest box office flops of all time, costing Warner Bros. $200 million compared to Blue Beetle which has done an average business.
In contrast to The Flash, there weren’t as many expectations for Blue Beetle, the fourteenth DC Extended Universe film, which was released in August. Despite this, the film received positive reviews and had one of the worst international opening weekends in DCEU history. But now it has been reported that Blue Beetle has managed to survive as a DC movie. Let’s find out more.
Blue Beetle held better at the box office than The Flash
Blue Beetle starring actor Xolo Maridueña in, Ángel Manuel Soto-directed movie reportedly had a slow start at the box office, just opening with $25 million during the weekend. However, the positive response from the critics and audience for the movie helped the movie to perform a little better through the following weekends and now it has the third best domestic box office weekend of the year for a DC movie.
Blue Beetle has finally managed to surpass the domestic box office collection of DCEU’s Shazam! Fury of Gods, is now known as one of the worst DCEU movies when it comes to box office collections. According to a box office insider, Luiz Fernando mentioned in the report by The Direct Blue Beetle is most likely to earn $70-$75 million in North America, which is going to make the movie the 11th highest earning DCEU movie at the domestic box office.
According to a report by Variety, Blue Beetle has certainly held better at the box office than The Flash and Shazam! Fury of Gods, but with it will not be able to justify its production budget north of $100 million. So it’s justified to say that even though the movie performed better than the other two movies; it still couldn’t make it to the success ladder.
Also read: James Gunn DCU Upsets Fans Yet Again, This Time With David Corenswet’s Superman Costume
Ángel Manuel Soto confirmed Blue Beetle as a part of James Gunn’s DCU
It came as a surprise to everyone when DC Studios’ new co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran announced that they would be starting their own DC Universe and bringing the DC Extended Universe to an end, but at the same time, ardent fans are excited to see what the new CEOs have in their mind.
Ángel Manuel Soto in an interview with Total Film magazine which was quoted in Games Radar had shared that Blue Beetle is a part of Gunn and Safran’s vision for the DCU. He said,
“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 installments of the DCU. 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.”
Blue Beetle‘s average success did not impact much to DC
DC Studios are not having the best of time when it comes to their movies and the box office as they are been performing badly at the box office, which is also why it has been known that Warner Bros., hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to redirect and try to fix what’s not working.
As a part of their own DCU, Gunn and Safran are working on rebooting the DC, starting with Superman: Legacy, which will premiere in 2025. But it should be known that not all of the past from DCEU will be lost as the co-CEO noted that Blue Beetle’s Xolo Maridueña, who played the title character in the movie, is the first character in DCU, but the movie is not a part of his first chapter.
The failure of Ezra Miller’s The Flash impacted negatively at DC Studios more than the average success of Blue Beetle since, as it was noted, not much was expected from the movie. But it will be interesting to see how Gunn and Safran’s DCU will impact the success of DC Studios and it seems like Gunn and Safran have a lot to prove to the one who have been criticizing their actions ever since they took over the reins of DC Studios.
Blue Beetle is currently playing in theaters and is expected to be available on digital VOD platforms on Tuesday, September 26.
Source: Twitter
