Summary

  • Blue Beetle's early reactions have been positive, with praise for its representation and the focus on family, emotional story, and exciting action sequences.
  • The Flash failed to deliver on its early hype, despite receiving praise from celebrities and featuring a multiversal storyline. Controversies and poor CGI contributed to its underperformance.
  • Blue Beetle has the potential to succeed where The Flash fell short, with a smaller budget and a confirmed place in the new DC Universe. Its standalone story and positive word-of-mouth can help it thrive in the long run.

The hype for DC's next blockbuster, The Flash's historic bomb at the box office. James Gunn and Peter Safran were appointed at the end of 2022 as the co-CEOs of the new DC Studios. Gunn and Safran are hard at work crafting the next ten years of DC projects, replacing the old DCEU with their rebooted DC Universe, which will feature actors playing their roles across movies, TV shows, animation, and video games. Before the new DC Universe gets its first film with 2025's Superman: Legacy, Gunn and Safran have to deal with the final films produced by the former DC regime.

2023 will see the release of four DC films before the year is done. Half of them have already been released, and sadly, both Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash bombed at the box office. While the Shazam! sequel failing to even reach the same numbers as the original movie featuring Zachary Levi's Shazam is surprising, nothing could have prepared DC for The Flash's historic box office bomb. Before Ezra Miller's The Flash was released, it seemed like the anticipation for the movie had been properly built up, only for it to tank. Now, the hype for DC's next blockbuster, Blue Beetle, gets impacted by The Flash's failure.

Blue Beetle's Early Reactions Have Been Positive

Shot of Blue Beetle from the back, with his energy sword out and rain falling.

Xolo Maridueña's DC debut has built up some momentum since Blue Beetle's positive early reactions came out. Most reactions praise the movie for its representation, with one reaction saying of Blue Beetle, "Not only is it a fantastic introduction to Jaime Reyes as a character/hero, but also a love letter to the Latino culture." The positive early reactions to Blue Beetle have also mentioned what has been considered some of the movie's strong points, which include the focus on family, an emotional story, exciting action sequences, and praise for Maridueña and the rest of the cast's performances, as well as director Ángel Manuel Soto's work.

The Flash Failed To Deliver On Early Hype

Christopher Reeve as Superman and Ezra Miller as The Flash in The Flash movie

DC's The Flash received incredible praise before its release. DC Universe creative chief Gunn praised the movie, saying, The Flash is “ one of the best superhero movies [he's] ever seen.” That was not the only public show of that Barry Allen's first solo movie received before it premiered, far from it, as multiple celebrities shared their reactions to The Flash, praising the movie. Among the names that raved about The Flash was Hollywood star Tom Cruise, who got to watch The Flash at a private screening of the movie at his home after showing interest in the film to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Despite the public show of from celebrities and The Flash's multiversal storyline that brought back Michael Keaton's fan-favorite Batman to the big screen for the first time since 1992's Batman Returns, The Flash bombed at the box office. Several aspects of the film, and lead star Miller's series of public controversies over the past few years, contributed to the movie severely underperforming, with The Flash's controversial multiverse cameos and extremely poor CGI being the two most talked about aspects of the film. While early word on the movie seemed to hint at the speedster's film being a major success for DC, The Flash will likely lose over $200 million.

How Blue Beetle Can Step Out Of The Flash's Shadow

Blue Beetle poster and Ezra Miller as Barry Allen in The Flash movie

Blue Beetle's early positive reactions become hard to trust after The Flash was hyped as one of the best superhero movies ever made, only for the film to receive middling reviews and become a historic box office bomb. Although some might find it hard to trust Blue Beetle's early hype, the movie does have some factors going for it that put Maridueña's debut as Jaime Reyes in a better place to succeed than The Flash. First, the movies have very different budgets, with Blue Beetle costing around $120 million to make, while The Flash's reported budget sits at around $220 million.

More than that, while The Flash ended with Miller's Barry Allen in a world where George Clooney is Batman, Maridueña's Blue Beetle has already been confirmed as the new DC Universe's first movie character by Gunn. Both DC films released since it was announced that the DCEU would be rebooted into the new DC Universe have bombed at the box office, which hints that audiences are eager to get to the next stage for the franchise.

Despite Blue Beetle having been made by the past DC regime, the movie is said to have a standalone story, with reportedly few/no cameos or great ties to the DCEU, which is the breath of fresh air that DC needs after its two latest box office bombs. Even if the movie's opening weekend numbers aren't high, Blue Beetle can beat The Flash in the long run with positive word-of-mouth giving the movie legs.