AFTER a full month in theatres, the top movie in the US was knocked off its perch. On its first day of release, Warner Bros’ Blue Beetle topped the charts, relegating the studio’s own mega-hit Barbie to second place for the first time in its record-breaking month-long run. Blue Beetle earned US$10 million (RM46 million) on its opening day, including the US$3.3 million (RM15 million) from last week’s previews.

However, it is expected that the film will earn approximately US$25 million (RM116 million) during its opening weekend, which is below average for superhero films. Nonetheless, Blue Beetle was reportedly produced at about half the cost of most major blockbuster movies today, with a budget of approximately US$104 million (RM483 million), as per Deadline.

Originally intended as a direct-to-streaming title, Blue Beetle now serves as the second-to-last installment of a bygone era of the DC Extended Universe, which will be rebooted in 2025 with Superman: Legacy under the supervision of James Gunn and Peter Safran.

The current DCEU era will officially come to a close with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom later this year, which has a larger overall connection with the series, while Blue Beetle is a mostly standalone story.

The film’s opening is comparable to Birds of Prey from several years ago. This film is widely regarded as having underperformed at the box office, grossing less than US$100 million (RM464 million) domestically and less than US$200 million (RM929 million) internationally.

While Barbie might help soften the impact, WB is still recovering from the disastrous run of three consecutive superhero movies namely Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods and The Flash. Blue Beetle, despite its modest budget, is not the film that will turn the studio’s superhero films around.

Barbie is anticipated to secure the second position with an estimated US$20 million (RM93 million) in its fifth weekend, having grossed US$6 million (RM28 million) last Friday. By Sunday, the film is expected to have accumulated a domestic box office total of US$566 million (RM2.630 billion).

Shortly after, it is poised to surpass The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which earned US$574 million (RM2.667 billion) in its entire theatrical run, becoming the year’s highest-grossing film.

This achievement is also expected to extend to the global box office, where Barbie has already grossed over US$1.2 billion (RM5.5 billion). Notably, Barbie shared its release date with the third-ranked film on the Friday chart: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.