'Blue Beetle' Reaches For Its Max Premiere Date
'Blue Beetle' Reaches For Its Max Premiere Date
Say hi again to Jaime as the film lands where it was once targeted for release
It may have been released three weeks after billion-dollar maker Barbie, but unless Barbie does a surprise drop on Max before next Friday, Blue Beetle will beach—I mean beat them there. Warner Bros. has announced the DC film will arrive on the streamer next Friday, November 17. So that’s at least one release the cast can celebrate on social media, as the SAG-AFTRA strike was about a month in when the film was released in August.
Xolo Maridueña, best known for his role on Cobra Kai, stars as Jaime Reyes, a recent college graduate returning home optimistic with aspirations for his future. However, home is not quite as he left it. His family is having money problems severe enough to face eviction. As he searches for purpose, his sister brings him an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab. When the Scarab chooses Jaime to be its symbiotic host, it painfully transforms him for compatibility with an armored and powered suit, turning him into the Blue Beetle.
The film was directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer. It also stars Belissa Escobedo as Jaime’s sister Milagro Reyes, Bruno Marquezine as his girlfriend Jenny Kord, Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord, Raoul Max Trujillo as her right-hand man Ignacio Carapax, George Lopez as uncle Rudy Reyes, Damián Alcázar as dad Alberto Reyes, Elpidia Carrillo as mom Rocio Reyes, Adriana Barraza as Nana, and Harvey Guillén as Dr. Jose Francisco Morales Rivera de la Cruz, though Victoria Kord called him "Sanchez". As for its box office, Blue Beetle has grossed $129.3 million globally, a $72.5 million domestic/$56.8 million international split on a $104 million budget. That puts it as the DCEU’s lowest earner.
Now it’s not uncommon for a studio’s streaming releases to be out of order from their theatricals, it’s often a conscious choice to hold off. Surely there were Universal films that had healthy theatrical runs after The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released in April and then arrived on Peacock before it did in August. We’re seeing such right now on Paramount+ with Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning like we did last year with Top Gun: Maverick. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem beat it soundly having released in early August and arrived in mid-September. Pretty sure it’s something in Tom Cruise’s contract. So it’s not earthshaking that Blue Beetle made it to Max first, nor does it signify much, but it’s still felt worth something.
However, the journey for this film to make it to streaming was elongated in its own way unrelated to the pandemic. While it had been in development since 2018, by December 2020, it was one of the mid-budget films that would be HBO Max exclusives. You know, like Batgirl. But a year later it was moved to the theatrical release it got (no delays! Really!) and survived. Of course, a lot changed for the service in the nearly 2 years since its retargeting, but it finally makes it. Xolo’s Jaime will make it into the new DC Universe, but the circumstances are unclear, especially among the first ten titles announced.
Source: Variety