5 Reasons Why Blue Beetle Flopped At The Box Office

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"Blue Beetle" was a movie caught in the middle of many battles being fought at Warner Bros. Discovery at the time. The company was trying to prioritize funneling movies to HBO Max in an attempt to lure subscribers and make headway in the streaming wars. Meanwhile, Hollywood was coming to grips with the idea that the box office was still sorely needed, attempting to find a path forward on that front in the aftermath of the pandemic. Oh, and there were also two Hollywood strikes happening in 2023.

That all contributed to "Blue Beetle" bombing at the box office. Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, the DC Comics adaptation was originally scheduled to go directly to HBO Max before pivoting to a theatrical release. It hit theaters on the weekend of August 18, 2023, rounding out the summer on a relatively low note. It opened to just $25 million domestically against a budget in the $120 million range, and things never got much better from there.

The film finished its run with $72.4 million domestically to go with a very soft $58.3 million internationally for a grand total of $130.7 million worldwide. Even though "Blue Beetle" included a credits scene signaling franchise ambitions, it served as a major disappointment for Warner Bros. and the then-newly-formed DC Studios, which is led by James Gunn and Peter Safran.

A couple of years after the initial release, the film is now trending in Netflix's top ten most-watched movie charts, continuing to find an audience on streaming. But what went wrong initially? Why did this movie fail to connect with moviegoers? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Blue Beetle" flopped at the box office. Let's get into it.

The film centers on Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a recent college grad who returns home in search of his purpose in the world. Fate intervenes when he finds himself in possession of an ancient alien relic (known as the scarab) that chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, giving him an incredible suit of armor with unpredictable powers.

Critics liked "Blue Beetle" well enough; it currently holds a 78% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences who did see it quite enjoyed it, with the audience rating sitting at 90%. So, why didn't enough of those people show up in theaters? Well, for one thing, Blue Beetle isn't a marquee character in the DC Comics canon. He's nowhere near as recognizable as Batman, Superman, or even Green Arrow.

That's not to say that B-level heroes can't headline big franchises. "Iron Man" became a big hit that jumpstarted the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he wasn't remotely a big name in the broader cultural sphere before that movie came out. That being said, not having an instantly recognizable hero at the center of a superhero movie does mean that the movie needs to do a little extra work to get audiences interested. 

In this case, the marketing didn't convince people that this was one of those must-see events, as many superhero movies were throughout the 2000s and 2010s. What seemed to happen is that people later saw the movie at home and were charmed by it. But that didn't help its bottom line at the time of release. 

By the time "Blue Beetle" arrived in late summer of 2023, the former DC Extended Universe (DCEU) that kicked off in 2013 with the release of Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" was taking its last gasps. The DCEU had high highs such as the $1.1 billion smash that was "Aquaman," but it also had some very low lows, such as the theatrical cut of "Justice League" and the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut mess that followed.

The big problem is that pretty much nothing worked for the DCEU during the pandemic era. Both "Wonder Woman 1984" and "The Suicide Squad" had to go directly to HBO Max and theaters, resulting in hugely diminished returns. 2022 saw The Rock's "Black Adam" flame out, failing to crack $400 million worldwide. And 2023 was far worse than anyone could have imagined.

"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" literally became one of the biggest superhero bombs ever, pulling in just over $134 million against a $125 million budget. It got worse when the much-hyped "The Flash" failed spectacularly, making less than $275 million against a huge $200 million budget. By the time "Blue Beetle" arrived, the DCEU had been on a terrible cold streak. Audience confidence in the DC brand was arguably at an all-time low. None of those movies did Jaime Reyes any favors in his live-action big screen debut.

In late 2022, it was revealed that "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy director James Gunn was due to lead DC Studios at Warner Bros. alongside mega-producer Peter Safran. They were going to hit the reboot button, abandoning (almost) everything from the DCEU. In January 2023, they made a big, splashy announcement, revealing the first wave of the new DCU, dubbed "Gods and Monsters." That included Gunn's "Superman" movie, among many others.

Gunn and Safran tried to make it clear that "Blue Beetle" wasn't some leftover project that would no longer carry any meaning, saying that the movie "is totally disconnected" and that "he can totally be a part of the DCU." All the same, a clear signal was sent to audiences that it was out with the old and in with the new, and despite what the duo were trying to say about this project, it felt like it was largely getting lumped in with the old as people started buzzing about the new wave of movies and TV shows headed our way.

Even under the best of circumstances, with everything that was going on in late 2023, this movie would have faced a relatively steep uphill battle. The looming and loud DC reboot was, as a result, one of the biggest nails in the coffin that all but assured this movie wasn't going to be an out-and-out theatrical success.

Not that it always helps move the needle at the box office, but promoting a movie, particularly an expensive movie, is always key when it comes to its possible success, or lack thereof. In the case of "Blue Beetle," it was at a major disadvantage as the Screen Actors Guild was in the midst of a long strike at the time of its release. It didn't help at all that the Writers Guild of America was also on strike for months on end, with the dual strikes casting a huge shadow over Hollywood for much of the year.

As a result, Xolo Maridueña, George Lopez, Susan Sarandon, and the rest of the cast couldn't do any promotion for the movie. The SAG strike wouldn't end until November. This is just one movie in a long list of movies that was severely impacted by the strikes, with many being delayed to 2024 and beyond as a result. In this case, it probably hurt the bottom line. Despite that, the movie's director stood with his cast at the time.

"They cannot be here today. But you know what? They're fighting the good fight," Soto said at the premiere, per Variety. "It's very important that we understand that they are heroes right now. They're sacrificing this big opportunity to see themselves."

In 2021 and 2022, it was easier to write off any box office flop as part of theaters getting back on their feet after being hammered by the pandemic. While some superhero movies such as "Morbius" were grave disappointments, others like "The Batman" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home" were huge hits. So there was no reason to believe that superheroes were losing their relevance in the pop culture sphere.

However, when 2023 ended, it became crystal clear that the age of presumed superhero dominance was over. Every single DC movie that year flopped or greatly disappointed. Even Marvel Studios, the once-bulletproof powerhouse, saw "The Marvels" make a disastrous $206 million worldwide, while the Avengers-level "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" fell well short of expectations with $476 million. This wasn't just a DC problem.

"Blue Beetle" came at a time when audiences needed more reason than ever to leave the house, and a superhero movie for the sake of a superhero movie was no longer going to cut it. Gone were the days of movies like "Venom" gliding to $856 million globally. By this time, we were 15 years removed from the $1 billion success of "The Dark Knight" and 23 years from "X-Men," which helped break Marvel into the mainstream after "Blade" cracked the door open in '98.

It's not that superhero cinema is dead, it's just that the boom we experienced for roughly 20 years is over, and this movie unfortunately found itself on the wrong side of that boom. 

You can also grab "Blue Beetle" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.