Summary
AsBlue Beetlesettles into the background, director Angel Manuel Soto had an interesting take on the film’s box office performance and what it means for those behind the scenes.
It was plain as day before it even released that DC’sBlue Beetlemovie had too much riding on its success. Serving as an origin story for Jaime Reyes, the more contemporary version of the Blue Beetle character, the film was released as one of the final pulses of Zach Snyder’s DCEU and suffered for it, with fans having long since consigned the few remaining projects not under the banner of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DCU to the box office flop pile. Despite this, many still looked to the film to potentially redeem the DCEU and secure a place in the new continuity for leading man Xolo Maridueña.
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WhileBlue Beetlecouldn’t save what’s left of the DCEU, the film did still manage to make an impact and even garner primarily favorable reviews from fans and critics alike, despite ending its box office run at a franchise-low $129.3 million, just a bit over its budget. Speaking toForbesabout the film’s lengthy 4-month run in theaters and relatively good reception, Soto seemed pleased with the outcome. “That perspective is new. I have never thought of it that way,” the director admitted. “I guess it’s reassuring that even with all the situations that were happening at the time, the film performed in a way it was not supposed to.”
It did really well considering that promotional material was limited, there were the actors and writers strikes, there was a tropical storm the same opening weekend, there was the Barbie takeover, and still people saw it. It has made the amount of money it has made because of word of mouth and because people connected to the story. The reviews were great, too.
The tropical storm in a major market was the mainreason WBD outlined forBlue Beetle’s bland opening, with the lack of promotion due to strikes and the Barbenheimer craze also going a long way to weigh down the film’s theatrical run. However, the film was still leagues above initial expectations, withBlue Beetleinitially being made to go straight to streaming before the decision to take it to theaters. “When you think about it, and all that, I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course, we deserve to be in theaters,’ and it reassured us that our instincts were right and that there is value in being unabashedly who we are, and to have a film that celebrates that. It’s worth having it,” Soto remarked.
One more noteworthy thing Soto’s film managed to achieve was assuring Gunn that Maridueña was the right guy for the role in his new DCU, news thattheBlue Beetledirector had a great reaction to. While there aren’t any concrete plans for the character, Gunn has made it clear that there will be a place for the Blue Beetle in the new continuity, and that says a lot in a franchise that already did away with names like Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. It’s certainly an exciting prospect, and fans must stay tuned to see what’s in store for Maridueña when the new DCU gets underway.
Blue Beetle
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