Not surprisingly, Blue Beetle didn’t particularly come out of the gate swinging. Granted, the latest entry into the DCEU did topple Barbie for the number one spot. However, it wasn’t by much. For any ordinary film, $25.4 million would be a solid win. Unfortunately, the reported budget for Blue Beetle was $104 million – minus advertising – so that number simply doesn’t cut it.
The latest DCEU film sadly wasn’t a leggy film that could’ve built its financial gain for the weeks to come. There wasn’t much competition for Blue Beetle following its release. On the flip side, the cinema score for Blue Beetle was B -, strongly indicating that audiences didn’t particularly care for the DCEU project. On the surface, it may seem obvious why Blue Beetle bombed in the first place.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash seemed to indicate that audiences are simply over the entire DCEU. That shouldn’t be a surprise as James Gunn did essentially tell audiences that the current slate of films doesn’t have an impact on the reboot DC universe. But there are several other reasons that Blue Beetle ultimately flopped at the box office.
Blue Beetle Isn’t A Well Known Comic Book Character
This one is the most obvious. Believe it or not, the character itself is a long-time hero as Blue Beetle’s first appearance in a comic book was Mystery Men Comics #1 in 1939. There are three different incarnations of the character; Jaime Reyes was introduced in Infinite Crisis #3 (February 2006). Despite the long history of the character in the comics, Blue Beetle was never a mainstream force in the media.
He was barely in any of the animated shows and movies. Blue Beetle was never in ANY of the live-action films. Most fans may recognize his character from the Injustice 2 video game. Even then, his character wasn’t the focal point of the game; Batman and Superman were.
That doesn’t mean DC was stupid in taking a risk on an unknown character. It worked for Guardians of the Galaxy, which had a talking tree and raccoon! The big difference is that Marvel was riding high during that time. Fans trusted Marvel, so they were willing to shell out money to see the unorthodox ragtag team. The DCEU just didn’t have that. Even though the critical score for Blue Beetle was solid overall, the rotten tomatoes score didn’t convince most moviegoers that it was worth a trip to the theaters.
The Focus On Latino Demographic
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with diversity. In fact, it’s highly doubtful that most fans skipped out on Blue Beetle because it was unapologetically Latino. It’s great that diverse characters are getting the much-deserved spotlight. The problem is, when the advertisement mostly focuses on how diverse a film is over the story, then the diversity feels cheap and exploitative.
Though Black Panther was noted as the first superhero film with a Black lead, it didn’t need that billing because it was genuinely a good film. So was Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. Films Boyz N Tha Hood, Do The Right Thing, Chef, and Parasite didn’t advertise their diversity as a selling point. These are incredible films not because of race or gender; they’re excellent stories that immerse audiences into a different culture organically.
Though Blue Beetle has a Latino lead, the film looked like a generic origin story that Spider-Man started in 2000. The film itself deviates from the formula by giving the focus on family. Still, the ads never truly made the story or the hero itself unique. Companies need to stop using diversity as a ploy to get butts into seats. People just want a good and original movie. Hyping that a film is diverse doesn’t make it better. If the script is bad, then there’s no chance in hell that the film will be any good.
It Looked Perfect For Max
Streaming and the coronavirus pandemic changed the way audiences experience films. Though HBO Max’s day-to-day movie release plan was a major bust, the theater experience hasn’t returned to what it was before the pandemic. Audiences are more selective about what they should see in theaters. The price hike doesn’t help, but people have been conditioned to simply wait until films like Blue Beetle end up on their respective streaming services.
Blue Beetle is a film from the DCEU, even though Gunn has confirmed that the character will return to the DCU. As previously mentioned, audiences are simply over DCEU right now. Add in the fact that Blue Beetle doesn’t bring a new perspective to the superhero genre, and most people were more than happy to wait for the film’s digital release.
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