Despite being highly praised by critics and audiences for its creativity, the movie "Blue Beetle" is the latest superhero film to fail at the box office.
Failed innovation
The movie "Blue Beetle" directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, featuring the cast: Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Susan Sarandon, Adriana Barraza, will be released in Vietnamese theaters from August 18. The film tells the story of Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña), born and raised in a family of Mexican origin. As the only person to graduate from college in the family, Jaime Reyes has full faith in a bright future. However, on the first day of working at the Kord corporation at the invitation of Jenny Kord (played by Bruna Marqueze), Jaime Reyes is given a burger box by Jenny Kord that hides a destructive weapon, the Scarab blue beetle. The blue beetle immediately chooses Jaime Reyes as a host, turning him into an involuntary superhero.
“Blue Beetle” is the latest superhero movie to flop at the box office. (Photo provided by distributor)
The film conveys humane messages about family affection and love. Interwoven with battle scenes are humorous and intimate details revolving around the members of Jaime Reyes' family. At the same time, emotional details are also built harmoniously, connecting enough to lead to changes in the characters' psychology. However, the villainous character Victoria Kord is not impressive enough to balance the protagonist.
"Blue Beetle" innovates not only in content to make superheroes more ordinary, closer, the story is easy to understand but also in the cast of young, beautiful, good acting. However, despite the efforts being seen and recognized by compliments from critics, stable scores from audiences, "Blue Beetle" still failed miserably at the box office. Up to now, the film has earned 114 million USD globally (not including the share with the theater system), while the production budget was 104 million USD. In the Vietnamese market, according to statistics from Box Office Vietnam (an independent box office revenue statistics site, with small errors), the film only earned more than 13 billion VND.
Previously, after the opening did not meet expectations, there were opinions that Tropical Storm Hilary was the cause of the film's revenue impact. However, after the storm passed, "Blue Beetle" still could not break through the revenue, proving that the box office failure of this superhero work was not only due to objective weather factors.
Lack of novelty
The failed attempt to innovate by "Blue Beetle" shows that the current superhero movie genre has lost its appeal to audiences. Many works in this genre have suffered losses: "The Flash" invested 220 million USD but global revenue reached only over 268 million USD; "Shazam! The Wrath of the Gods" had a budget of up to 125 million USD but revenue was only over 133 million USD worldwide; "Black Adam" gathered famous actors, invested heavily in special effects and images but was still criticized for its incoherent plot. The film had a global revenue of 393 million USD while the production budget was 260 million USD.
Insiders believe that the decline of the hero film genre is due to the stories revolving around magical characters coming out of comics being boring and lacking in novelty. The films all follow the pattern of saving people, saving the world , fighting against villains and the victory is for the superheroes. The villains lack depth. Some films do not invest in special effects properly, causing a loss of sympathy from the audience.
In the past, superhero movies had a golden age, taking the big screen by storm with stories revolving around: "Batman", "Spider-man", "Iron man", "Captain America", "Thor", "Superman", Wonder Woman... Audiences were fascinated by the series revolving around these characters and helped superhero movies bring huge profits to producers. Superhero movies have a large fan base, helping the names of actors who transform into superheroes to be loved and recognized by the audience.
However, since 2022, the superhero movie genre has begun to saturate and then decline. In a survey of 2,200 people from mid-2022 conducted by Morning Consult, the percentage of people who like superhero movies has dropped to only 59% compared to 64% in November 2021, the percentage of people who dislike them has increased by 5%. Many people expressed fatigue because there are so many superhero movies that they can't remember them all and each superhero has a separate story that is developed into another series.
According to experts, the decline of superhero movies is in line with the market’s boom-and-saturation pattern. Besides the regret and sadness, some people in the industry believe that this is an opportunity for other genres to break through and replace this genre.
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