The appointment of James Gunn and Peter Safran as the new CEOs of the DCU was the first of many significant changes the studio has been going through. But even after the arrival of James Gunn, the situation seemingly remains unchanged.
The DCU is not doing any good at the box office under the new leadership. Its much-anticipated movie The Flash became the worst box office flop in superhero movie history, despite the early excitement surrounding the long-awaited solo movie for Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. The latest DCU movie Blue Beetle also goes in the almost same direction. The movie opened to a mediocre $3.3 million from Thursday preview screenings in North America.
Blue Beetle‘s Previews Made 3X Less than The Flash, the DC Crisis Continues
Director Ángel Manuel Soto’s Blue Beetle starring Xolo Maridueña is Hollywood’s first live-action superhero movie built around a Latino protagonist.
The domestic box office for the comic book movie took in $3.3 million on Thursday previews. On Rotten Tomatoes, Blue Beetle has a 93% audience score. The SAG-AFTRA strike hindered the release of Blue Beetle. However, many Latino organizations are providing assistance throughout the country by hosting special screenings and other events.
Given that this superhero film’s budget was under $120 million, it might not be disastrous despite the fact that it isn’t also an impressive beginning for a superhero movie. Meanwhile, The Flash in comparison made $9.7M.
The James Gunn-Dwayne Johnson Feud
After the release of Black Adam, the DCU chose to discard the movie and the superhero character from the franchise as Warner Bros experienced an extensive change with the appointment of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
In an interview on Peacock and Kevin Hart’s Hart to Hart, Dwayne Johnson, aka Black Adam, spoke candidly about how his DC film became caught up in the changing leadership. He said,
“I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership, and at that time, we were creating Black Adam, developing it, shooting Black Adam, getting knocked back down because of COVID, the shutdowns, got back up.”
The Rock’s future with Warner Bros. and DC is in doubt with the apparent failure of Johnson’s passion project Black Adam. Even though it will be difficult for DCU to keep famous individuals like Dwayne Johnson away from its series, it seems unlikely that The Rock will soon adopt the Black Adam suit.
Blue Beetle is in theaters.
Source: Twitter
