Blue Beetle to Potentially Outdo Shazam 2 at Box Office

A new report suggests that Blue Beetle might outdo fellow 2023 DC movie Shazam! Fury of the Gods at the box office.

While the film hasn't exactly been a box office hit, a new report suggests that Blue Beetle could rake in more money than fellow 2023 DC movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

According to ComicBook.com, the Azure Avenger's film is currently projected to have its theatrical run come to a close with somewhere between $140 and $170 million dollars in its pocket, which dwarfs Fury of the Gods' $133.8 million dollars. That said, Blue Beetle will lag behind The Flash, which netted $268.5 million dollars worldwide, though ironically, an earlier report said that Blue Beetle's CinemaScore was better that The Flash's. Prior to this, a statement from Warner Bros. pinned the blame for Blue Beetle's low box office on Hurricane Hilary, noting that the storm's impact was "anticipated to be significant, particularly in Southern California where the film is over‐indexing."

Tying into this, lead actor Xolo Maridueña touched upon his character's future in the upcoming DC Universe franchise, remarking, "I have had the pleasure of getting to speak with [DC Studios co-president and co-CEO] Mr. James Gunn and the whole DC fam. And, you know, at the end of the day, I think, first, we have to cross this first hill, right? And introduce Jaime [Reyes/Blue Beetle] to the world. But I think it's up to the audience to watch the movie. It's up to everyone to show up for the movie and it's so wonderful that we get to make movies like this."

Does This Mean Blue Beetle Will Return in the DCU?

Additionally, Maridueña expressed interest in joining the DCU's Justice League, similarly mentioning at the time that such an event happening depends on money. As of now, though, no offical plans for the Justice League have been announced. Gunn himself had previously talked about Blue Beetle's DCU future as well, saying that Jaime and "a handful of other characters" will continue on in the franchise. He would later state in a post on Instagram that Jaime will be "an amazing part of the DCU going forward!"

On Shazam's side of things, franchise star Zachary Levi shared his doubt on the World's Mightiest Mortal's own DCU future in an interview. "I don't know what the future holds for it all because, unfortunately, [Fury of the Gods] was not as well received [as Shazam! 1,]" he said. "The audience score is still quite good, but the critics' score was very oddly and perplexingly low, and people were insanely unkind."

Blue Beetle is now in theaters. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is streaming on Max.