Blue Beetle opens to $3.3 million in Thursday night preview showings

The new DCU has kicked off with the release of Blue Beetle. James Gunn has revealed that even though his Superman: Legacy film will be the first full-on DCU film that was conceived, shot, and released after officially taking the position at Warner Bros., the Blue Beetle will be the first character introduced into his new universe continuity. And after weeks of releases that had failed to topple the Barbenheimer dominance, many are predicting Blue Beetle to be a formidable opponent at the box office.

Despite the end of summer and school starting for many young moviegoers around the country, Deadline is reporting that the new superhero film starring Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Maridueña has started its run with a nice Thursday preview of $3.3 million earnings. Screenings for Blue Beetle were inaugurated at 2 PM from 3,400 locations. Meanwhile, Universal would also preview its new comedy, the Will Ferrell-voiced dog comedy Strays. After the melancholy catharsis of Oppenheimer, the studio’s tension-breaking film would end up taking in $1.1 million from Thursday previews that began at 5 PM screening in 2,700 theaters.

Blue Beetle is predicted to make around $28 million to $32 million this weekend and is expected to dethrone Barbie from the number one spot after the Margot Robbie comedy is estimated to haul in a cool $22 million to $24 million. Blue Beetle will likely not be the be-all/end-all of the superhero film output, but there is a lot to observe from it as it releases in a year when the normally reliably successful genre of movies have started to wane, and many have started to attribute “comic book fatigue” to it.

In fact, the Thursday previews are resembling the early performance of Shazam: Fury of the Gods. That sequel similarly earned $3.4 million before making $11.7 million on the presiding Friday and totaling $30.1M over three days. Blue Beetle does not have the benefit of promotion from the actors due to the strikes. However, before the strikes occurred, the cast and filmmakers were very passionate about the film blazing a trail at representing Latino culture and hoping to bring that demographic on the strength of its core cast.