Blue Beetle will dethrone Barbie at the box office—but not by much

Blue Beetle has finally become the movie to knock Barbie out of its top position at the summer box office

By William Hughes  |  August 19, 2023 | 5:49pm
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Blue Beetle will dethrone Barbie at the box office—but not by much
Blue Beetle Photo: Warner Bros.

The reign of Queen Barbie, savior of summer cinema, lord and ruler of the box office, has finally come to a close, it seems: Although Greta Gerwig’s bright pink opus is still expected to make perfectly good money in theaters this weekend—it’ll probably pass The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the highest domestic box office performer of 2023, another jewel for its very shiny plastic tiara—it’s still expected to land behind new superhero movie Blue Beetle when the numbers are added up.

That doesn’t mean Blue Beetle is making good money, mind you: The DC Comics movie, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, is expected to bring in about $25 million this weekend—great if you’re in your fifth week in theaters like Barbie is, pretty dismal for an opening. And while Blue Beetle, with a budget of around $100 million, was on the cheap side to make, as far as superhero movies go—having originally been conceived as a direct-to-streaming HBO Max movie, before Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav exploded that particular part of the company’s streaming strategy last year—its arrival is still another data point in the ongoing narrative about superhero fatigue. (And especially DC superhero fatigue, after lackluster performances from The Flash and Shazam! Fury Of The Gods earlier this year.)

Certainly, Blue Beetle’s take isn’t expected to be anything close to Barbie money, and we have to imagine Warner Bros. is feeling a bit ambivalent about handing off the crown to itself in this case; it’s worth noting that if Blue Beetle had opened last week, it would have likely been buried well beneath the floor of Margot Robbie’s dreamhouse, since Gerwig’s movie made nearly $34 million in domestic markets even as it crossed its “one month in theaters” milestone.

 
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