Numbers are beginning to roll in for this second to last weekend of the summer movie season and as of right now the race between Warner Bros properties is in a tight race with DC’s Blue Beetle expected to narrowly eek out a victory with what is looking like a $25 million opening weekend. That number includes the $3.3 million made form Thursday night previews, which is about $100,000 less than what Shazam! Fury of the Gods made earlier this year. Both films carry a B+ cinemascore which is okay, but that score also saw the Shazam sequel drop nearly 70% in its second week. I’m not quite sure what Warner Bros was expecting from this movie when they pivoted to a theatrical release after the film was expected to debut on Max, but I have to imagine they expected something better than this. When it comes to origin stories, the closest comp would be 2019’s Shazam! which secured $53.5 million in its debut.
The film is currently certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 77% score, but it does have its detractors who feel the latest super hero film doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from every other comic book origin story that has come out in the last 25 years. James Gunn has said that Blue Beetle is the first character from the revamped DCU that officially launches in 2025 when his Superman Legacy is released. If Blue Beetle ultimately turns out to be another massive failure for the DC brand on the big screen, the smart play may be to incorporate the character into that Superman film in a small part and then launch a sequel shortly thereafter because it would be a shame to completely lose this character as it has potential for future adventures, even if I was one of the people who simply did not enjoy this initial outing.
For the first time since its release a month ago, Barbie could drop to second place with what is predicted to be a $21 million fifth weekend. The film currently sits at number 15 on the all time top domestic list with just under $544 million and should pass The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $574.2 million within the week. Of course the day is still young and it really depends what type of walk up business Blue Beetle sees today, Barbie is a proven box office winner and if Blue Beetle hits a wall today, we could see the Margot Robbie fronted film land in first for a fifth straight week.
If Warner Bros is owning the top two spots, Universal will have to settle for the spots three and four as Oppenheimer continues its historic run at the box office with what is looking like another $11 million for what will be a running domestic total of over $285 million. It won’t be long before Oppenheimer defeats Inception on the domestic charts as that film finished with around $293 million. Again, I can not sing the praises of this film enough. There are few films that I dare call masterpieces, and this is one of them. Unfortunately Universal’s new R rated raunchy comedy Strays looks to be a miss at the box office as the Will Ferrell/ Jaimie Foxx fronted tale of foul mouthed dogs who just want to go bite Will Forte’s d*ck off is cratering with just an $8.5 million weekend. With a reported $46 million budget, the film will hopefully play better on home video and be able to make up some of its theatrical losses. Our own Chris Bumbray saw the film and found it to be worth the price of admission with some solid belly laughs in his 7/10 review. I won’t disagree with his assessment, I found the movie to be pretty funny because even after the novelty of seeing dogs curse and say bad words, you still had really great voice performances from Ferrell, Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park that elevated the material.
Rounding out the top five will be the Seth Rogan/ Evan Goldberg produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem with another $8.4 million and a running total just shy of $90 million at the domestic box office. In the past year we have seen animated films perform solidly when given a proper runway to success. Families aren’t always going to rush out right away to see a movie, but if it looks like it is worth your time and money, they will eventually make their way to theaters and that is why Mutant Mayhem has been able to accumulate as much as it has in the three weeks since it debuted.
What do you make of the numbers we are currently seeing for Blue Beetle? If you saw the film, let us know what you thought in the comments section and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full rundown of this weekends box office numbers.