Blue Beetle Opening Night Box Office Revealed As Audiences Share Pictures Of Empty Theaters

Summary

Despite good reviews, DC’s Blue Beetle is off to a rocky box-office start, with only $3.3 million in preview screenings.
Anecdotal evidence on social media suggests that the movie is not drawing large crowds, with images of nearly-empty theater seats being shared.
The unique circumstances of Blue Beetle’s release as a streaming exclusive may lower expectations for its financial success, but positive word of mouth could still benefit the film.

DC’s Blue Beetle is finally out in theaters, and despite good reviews, the movie seems to be off to a rocky box-office start. The second-to-last movie created under to old DCUE banner (which will officially come to a close with December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom), Blue Beetle marks the big-screen debut for Xolo Maridueña’s titular hero. The movie was originally set to be a Max streaming exclusive for DC, and Thursday box-office numbers are beginning to paint a picture of whether or not the move to a theatrical release was a smart one for WB and DC Studios.

Opening Thursday evening for preview screenings, Blue Beetle pulled in $3.3 million, which estimates posit may lead to a proper opening weekend of $28-$33 million (per Deadline). Blue Beetle follows the critically and financially disappointing The Flash, which earned $9.7 million from its Thursday previews, though the comparison to the much larger, more expensive, and heavily marketed projects is perhaps not quite apt. More appropriate is a look at Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which earned $30.1 million its opening weekend after a $3.4 million Thursday preview.

Blue Beetle was the beneficiary of a strong fan-led marketing campaign before release, but early photos seem to indicate that the masses are not rushing to see DC’s latest blockbuster. Anecdotal evidence certainly isn’t always representative of a wider truth, but viewers posting images of nearly-empty theater seat reservation screens probably isn’t the social media presence that WB envisioned for the film. That being said, there’s still ample time for the weekend and positive word of mouth to get fans into seats.

On Twitter, user @lizardhospital posted an image that’s gained some traction showing the online reservation screen for Blue Beetle. Across four showings at what appears to be a large AMC theater, only 16 tickets had been sold. Of course, the post is slightly misleading as it shows images of reservations a day out from the actual show times. It’s possible (and likely) that several more seats were sold, but the images still show a far more empty theater than most Marvel and DC movies a day before their premiere.

Another Twitter user, @TrevorEMetcalfe, found humor in the one single seat sold for Blue Beetle at his theater, which happened to be in the center all the way up in the front row. @meteormajeure found a similar situation.

@WalterW89524632 followed suit, posting images from “the most sold out screening in my area [in the UK].” The pictures aren’t quite as shocking, but each screen still has under half of its seats spoken for.

However, not every post is quite so shocking. @joits shows a screen on its way to solid seating numbers, as does @SnwflkBlizzard.

The unique circumstances surrounding Blue Beetle make it difficult to judge the movie’s preview night box office take and potential opening weekend pull. Despite being on track to perform similarly to Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which was considered a financial disappointment, Blue Beetle‘s origins as a streaming exclusive may set the bar for financial success lower. Furthermore, Blue Beetle may prove to have better earnings legs than other recent DC projects if positive word of mouth follows the film’s generally positive reviews.

Source: Deadline/ Various On Social Media