Blue Beetle has put an end to Barbie’s reign over the Box Office

Barbie has been a clear success in theaters. The movie directed by Greta Gerwig has managed to stay the course on its way to becoming the biggest box office hit of 2023, soaring over The Super Mario Bros. Movie and shooting ahead of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, even with that film’s own achievements and having released on the same day. It took an entire month for any other movie to challenge the pink titan, but now it’s finally happened: DC’s Blue Beetle has taken the lead.

At first announced as a direct-to-streaming title, Blue Beetle went from being the last DC entry to the DCEU to kickstarter of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Cinematic Universe. The choice was made to bring the smaller film to movie theaters around the world, and it’s currently expected to reach 25 million dollars of revenue in its domestic opening week. Barbie is currently on its fifth week in theaters, and is still breaking the 20 million dollar mark of weekly domestic revenue.

Blue Beetle, a peculiar superhero

The first reviews of Blue Beetle are very positive, with even strong statements such as “Blue Beetle is my favorite post-Nolan DC movie.”

Barbie and Oppenheimer, the two great releases of the summer, coincided in their premieres. The movie inspired by the Mattel doll would reach 566 million dollars in revenue in the United States alone this past Sunday, very close to the 574 million that The Super Mario Bros Movie achieved. Globally, it has reached $1.2 billion, although Oppenheimer is not far behind, Christopher Nolan’s film has made history as the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States while never reaching the top spot at the box office.