Box Office Report: ‘Blue Beetle’ Unseats ‘Barbie’

Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.

Weekend Estimates Update - August 18th, 2023 to August 20th, 2023:

Warner Bros.'s Blue Beetle debuted in first place at the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated $25.40 million. After leading the box office over each of the past four weekends with Barbie, Warner Bros. has now led the domestic box office for five consecutive frames. While Blue Beetle was able to outpace Barbie for first place this weekend, Blue Beetle opened on the very low end of expectations, which ranged from the mid-twenty millions to the low thirty-millions heading into the weekend, and wasn't off to the greatest start with the film's price-tag in mind. Still, it should also be reminded that Blue Beetle was initially planned to be an HBO Max (now Max) release before it ultimately became a theatrical release, and that the Blue Beetle character is a lesser known comic book character, especially among more general audiences. Blue Beetle opened below the $30.11 million debut of fellow DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film Shazam! Fury of the Gods back in March, as it appears that the ongoing transition from the DCEU to the upcoming DC Universe continues to limit current demand for current DC theatrical releases. However, odds are that Blue Beetle will hold up better than Shazam! Fury of the Gods did, perhaps significantly so.

Blue Beetle started out with $10.00 million on Friday (which included an estimated $3.30 million from Thursday preview shows that began early at 2PM), declined a reasonable 14.5 percent on Saturday to gross $8.55 million and is estimated to decrease 19.9 percent on Sunday to gross $6.85 million. Tropical Storm Hilary hitting Southern California on Sunday will likely prevent Blue Beetle from having an even better hold on Sunday. Blue Beetle, which is noteworthy for having a Latino superhero and largely Latino primary cast, performed well with Hispanic American audiences, but also didn't really become an event with Hispanics either, as Hispanic Americans represented 39 percent of the film's overall audience. The rest of the ethnic breakdown for Blue Beetle skewed 27 percent Caucasian, 19 percent African American, 11 percent Asian and 5 percent Native American and other. The audience breakdown for Blue Beetle also skewed 62 percent male, 38 percent female, 65 percent over 25 and 35 percent under 25. Blue Beetle has gone over fairly well with critics and the film looks to be going over fairly well with audiences as well after receiving a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore. With solid word of mouth, being a non-sequel about a lesser known character and the potential to hold up especially well with Hispanic American audiences, going forward Blue Beetle will have a chance of displaying stronger than usual holding power for a comic book based film.

While the domestic start for Blue Beetle was respectable, the film's international start was less promising as Blue Beetle grossed an estimated $18.0 million from 63 international markets. That places the film's global launch at $43.4 million. Estimated debuts for Blue Beetle by international market included $2.7 million in Mexico, $2.1 million in Brazil, $1.5 million in France, $1.5 million in the United Kingdom, $1.2 million in Indonesia, $0.7 million in Thailand, $0.7 million in India, $0.6 million in Spain, $0.6 million in Malaysia and $0.6 million in Italy. Blue Beetle grossed an estimated $4.0 million from global IMAX screens this weekend ($2.9 million from domestic IMAX screens and $1.1 million from international IMAX screens).

Warner Bros.'s also took second place this weekend, as Barbie continued to impress with an estimated fifth weekend gross of $21.50 million. Barbie declined a very solid 36.5 percent from last weekend, which represented this weekend's best percentage hold among wide releases (A24's Talk to Me declined a similar 37.2 percent). Barbie registered the ninth largest unadjusted fifth weekend gross of all-time. With a $567.28 million 31-day domestic gross through Sunday, Barbie is currently the 15th highest grossing film of all-time domestically and is on the verge of surpassing the $574.26 million current total gross of Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Movie to move into 14th place on the list (and also become the highest grossing release of 2023 thus far domestically). With the help of continued strong word of mouth, repeat business, this weekend's very solid per-location performance and Labor Day weekend in two weeks, Barbie is highly likely to hold up even better than it did this weekend over each of the next two weekends.

Barbie also continued to impress internationally this weekend with an estimated $26.7 million from 75 international markets. That brings the film's international total to $711.9 million and current global haul to a massive $1.279 billion. Barbie remains the second highest grossing release of 2023 globally and is quickly approaching the $1.355 billion global total of The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the highest grossing release of 2023 globally. Totals for Barbie by international market through Sunday include $109.6 million in the United Kingdom, $53.2 million in Mexico, $51.1 million in Australia, $47.4 million in Germany, $43.0 million in Brazil, $40.7 million in France, $34.6 million in China, $32.8 million in Italy, $32.6 million in Spain, $17.5 million in the Netherlands, $14.7 million in Argentina and $13.5 million in Poland.

Universal's Oppenheimer grossed an estimated $10.60 million to remain in third place this weekend. Oppenheimer declined 43.7 percent from last weekend, but the decline was largely expected and quite understandable given that Oppenheimer lost the vast majority of its IMAX screens to Blue Beetle this weekend. However, Oppenheimer did hold onto 32 select domestic IMAX screens this weekend (22 of which were IMAX 70mm) and from those 32 screens the film grossed an estimated $1.3 million (for a very impressive IMAX per-screen average of $40,625). This weekend's limited IMAX performance helped prevent Oppenheimer from experiencing a sharper decline this weekend and highlights the continued level of demand to see Oppenheimer on IMAX screens. Overall, Oppenheimer has grossed $285.23 million through 31 days of domestic release, with an estimated $80.8 million of that total (28.3 percent) coming from domestic IMAX screens (Oppenheimer is currently the fourth highest grossing IMAX release of all-time domestically).

Thanks in part to a $12.6 million debut in South Korea, Oppenheimer held up extremely well internationally this weekend with an estimated $32.0 million from 80 international markets. With an international total of $432.6 million, Oppenheimer passed the $700 million global mark this weekend and has grossed $717.8 million to date globally. Additional totals for Oppenheimer by international market through Sunday include $63.9 million in the United Kingdom, $39.5 million in Germany, $31.2 million in France, $22.9 million in Australia, $18.4 million in India, $18.4 million in Spain, $18.0 million in Mexico, $16.1 million in the Netherlands, $12.6 million in Brazil and $11.6 million in Saudi Arabia. Oppenheimer grossed an estimated $3.8 million from international IMAX screens this weekend, which brings the film's international IMAX total to $65.6 million. With a current global IMAX total of $146.4 million, Oppenheimer is now the 5th highest grossing IMAX release of all-time globally (behind Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Star Wars: The Force Awakens & Avengers: Endgame).

Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem placed in fourth with an estimated $8.43 million. While not a great hold, this weekend's percentage decline of 44.9 percent was a respectable hold and nearly on par with last weekend's 45.5 percent decline. The 19-day domestic total for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem stands at a healthy $88.13 million. It should also be reminded that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was significantly less expensive than most other high-profile computer animated films. Internationally, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem grossed an estimated $4.8 million this weekend from 47 international markets. Respective totals stand at $30.3 million internationally and at $118.4 million globally.

Meanwhile, Universal's Strays was off to a rough (or perhaps ruff) start this weekend with an estimated fifth place debut of $8.30 million. That was significantly below already scaled back consensus expectations, which had tended to range from $11 million to $15 million heading into the weekend. Historically, August is a good month for R-rated comedies (back in August of 2019 Universal's Good Boys debuted with $21.40 million), but Strays just never caught on with audiences. Opening in the midst of Barbiemania made for a tough hill for Strays to climb, while mixed critical reviews and the inability of the film's vocal cast to currently do press due to the SAG strike didn't help matters either for Strays this weekend. The audience breakdown for Strays skewed 56 percent male, 44 percent female, 68 percent over 25 and 32 percent under 25. The film's ethnic breakdown was 46 percent Caucasian, 30 percent Hispanic American, 13 percent African American, 6 percent Asian American and 6 percent Native American and other. Strays received a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore, which suggests the film is going over better with audiences than it has with critics. At the same time, the film displayed some initial front-loading this weekend with an opening weekend to opening day ratio of 2.41 to 1 (on the heels of a $3.44 million opening day performance on Friday, including an estimated $1.10 million from Thursday previews and select Wednesday early access previews). Internationally, Strays grossed just an estimated $2.0 million this weekend from 21 select international markets (including $0.78 million in the United Kingdom and $0.54 million in Australia). The early global total for Strays stands at $10.3 million.

Warner Bros.'s Meg 2: The Trench placed in sixth this weekend with an estimated $6.73 million. Meg 2: The Trench declined 47.6 percent from last weekend, which while still a display of early front-loading, did represent some stabilization from last weekend and was fairly respectable given the new direct competition from fellow Warner Bros. release Blue Beetle this weekend. The 17-day domestic total for Meg 2: The Trench stands at $66.56 million. Meg 2: The Trench continued to perform significantly stronger internationally, as the film grossed an estimated $21.9 million from 76 international markets this weekend (including $5.9 million in China, where the film has grossed $106.3 million to date). Meg 2: The Trench has grossed an estimated $250.1 million internationally, which moved the film's global total past the $300 million mark this weekend and brings the film's current global haul to $316.6 million.

Read more at BoxOfficeReport.com.