<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



DC Comics’ late-summer superhero movie&nbsp;Blue Beetle&nbsp;grossed roughly $9.8 million on its opening day at the U.S. box office, taking down Mattel’s&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;after a month on top of the box office charts, though&nbsp;Blue Beetle’s opening still pales in comparison to rival Marvel’s recent releases, a lackluster start for DC’s latest movie, which cost a reported $104 million to make.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Blue Beetle&nbsp;has pulled in more than $13 million since its opening, including $3.3 million in Thursday previews,&nbsp;<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/08/box-office-blue-beetle-strays-barbie-1235522235/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deadline</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-blue-beetle-previews-1235698810/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Variety</a>&nbsp;reported, taking down&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;after 29 straight days on top of the U.S. box office, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Box Office Mojo</a>.



The DC movie is projected to make between $25 million to $32 million through Sunday,&nbsp;Variety&nbsp;reported, though&nbsp;Deadline&nbsp;puts it at $25 million, making it DC’s latest underperforming film as it struggles to compete with rival Marvel.



Its opening could also finish with less than half of the $55.1 million DC’s&nbsp;The Flash&nbsp;pulled in domestically over its opening weekend in June, though&nbsp;The Flash&nbsp;also struggled to meet expectations, falling short of its $70 million opening weekend projection, after the film faced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/02/14/a-detailed-look-at-flash-star-ezra-millers-rough-2-years-harassment-burglary-charges-and-more/?sh=29e8e15029b7">controversy</a>&nbsp;over harassment and disorderly conduct charges against star Ezra Miller.



By comparison, Marvel’s&nbsp;Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3&nbsp;pulled in $118.4 million in its opening weekend in May, while&nbsp;Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania&nbsp;grossed $106.2 million in its opening weekend in February and Sony’s&nbsp;Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse&nbsp;grossed $120.7 million in its first weekend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



The DC movie has a 91% audience score and a 75% critics’ score on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_beetle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rotten Tomatoes</a>, though critics have not been universally friendly, giving it a score of 61 out of 100 on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.metacritic.com/movie/blue-beetle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Metacritic</a>. A review in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/16/dc-latino-superhero-film-blue-beetle-review" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Guardian</a>&nbsp;lauded the movie for setting a “milestone for representation” as the first live-action Latino superhero film, but confessed the movie “suffers from overplayed beats,” due to the “fatigue from oversaturation” of a seemingly never ending string of Hollywood superhero movies. A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/movies/blue-beetle-review.html#:~:text=The%20plot%20is%20boilerplate%20and,family%20members%20steal%20the%20show." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;review didn’t pull any punches either, calling the plot “boilerplate” and the superhero “not particularly compelling.”



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



By signing up, you accept and agree to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/terms-and-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Terms of Service</a>&nbsp;(including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Privacy Statement</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



Barbie&nbsp;is just under $30 million short of surpassing&nbsp;The Super Mario Bros. Movie&nbsp;as the year’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office. Since its release,&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;has pulled in $545.8 million in the U.S. and another $660.6 million internationally, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1077904129/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>&nbsp;from Box Office Mojo, putting it just behind the Universal Pictures and Nintendo blockbuster, which has grossed more than $574.2 million domestically since its release on April 5.&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;still has $110 million to go to catch up with James Cameron’s&nbsp;Avatar: The Way of Water, which has grossed more than $684 million in the U.S. since its December release.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/08/06/barbie-tops-1-billion-at-global-box-office/?sh=6c5fe75c7520">‘Barbie’ Tops $1 Billion At Global Box Office</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/08/13/barbie-and-oppenheimer-continue-box-office-dominance-for-fourth-week-raking-in-combined-525-million/?sh=65ef9f762019">&#8216;Barbie’ And &#8216;Oppenheimer&#8217; Continue Box Office Dominance For Fourth Week—Raking In Combined $52.5 Million</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/08/12/barbie-breaks-500-million-at-us-box-office-further-cementing-itself-as-summers-blockbuster/?sh=744fe19b43f9">‘Barbie’ Breaks $500 Million At U.S. Box Office—Further Cementing Itself As Summer’s Blockbuster</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

Tag: Barbiemania

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

End Of Barbiemania? ‘Blue Beetle’ Unseats ‘Barbie’ With $9.8 Million Opening