Today marks exactly 42 days until the DC Universe’s Blue Beetle releases in theaters.
Typically, around two months before a movie’s release the studio starts churning out additional trailers, TV spots, and a handful of clips, all of which are usually shared in spectacular fashion across various corners of the internet. At the moment, Blue Beetle only has a single trailer and a couple of unadvertised TV spots.
On DC’s Instagram page, the last Blue Beetle post is from June 8, and before that, April 3. That’s all; only two posts in the last three months. Furthermore, there are only five posts in total on Blue Beetle’s official Instagram page, the last one being from June 8. The same goes for Twitter. Just by the look of the film’s social media presence, it’s as if DC Studios has completely forgotten about the movie.
With so little time left to promote the movie, excite fans, and reach as wide an audience as possible, it would behoove James Gunn and Peter Safran, co-heads of DC Studios, to get a move on things. Yet, the opposite is happening, and fans have started to take note.
If not everyone knows a major superhero movie is releasing in 42 days, you have a problem. If they are somehow under the impression it is being released next year? Well, then you’re just screwed.
All of DC’s movies this year — Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom — are believed to total around $1.2 billion in production and marketing costs. So, perhaps DC just doesn’t have the money to promote The Beetle.
Still, for a movie that sports the DC’s first Latino superhero, played by Cobra Kai fan-favorite Xolo Maridueña, a mostly all-Latinx cast and crew, and the first official superhero of the newly revamped DCU, it’s a bad look for James Gunn. Then again, a similar situation played out earlier this year with Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
It’s been said that a Blue Beetle sequel or any form of a continuation is dependent on its box office performance. In that case, it’s hard not to feel like DC is sabotaging the movie.
Right now it’s too early to tell how Blue Beetle will perform at the box office. The film is operating on a supposed $120 million budget. Comparatively, Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods both worked within a $260 million and a $125 million budget, respectively; the former earned a measly $393.3 million whereas the latter earned an even lousier $133.8 million. As for The Flash — it was supposed to open with $125 million domestically but only managed to haul in $61.2 and only continued to disappoint thereafter.
If DC continues to ignore promoting Blue Beetle, the movie risks following suit.
In theory, Blue Beetle doesn’t need to work as hard to earn back as much, but by no means does that suggest DC can let its hands off the wheel, lest it wastes a sizeable chunk of that $1.2 billion. Although the movie is not technically a part of the DCU “Chapter 1” of “Gods and Monsters,” it is still canonically part of the DCU, according to Gunn and the film’s director. To not promote such a character — any character in the DCU for that matter — feels careless.
Originally slated to be an HBO Max exclusive, Blue Beetle will officially — and exclusively — premiere in theaters on August 18. That gives you 42 days to start getting the word out because clearly, DC can’t be bothered.