‘Blue Beetle’ crawls past ‘Barbie,’ topping the box office with $25.4 million

DC Films’ Blue Beetle ended Barbie‘s four-week reign at the top of the domestic box office, despite falling short of expectations with an estimated $25.4 million debut. Blue Beetle, starring Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Maridueña [SHOW-low Mar-i-DWANE-ya] as the titular character, is the third DC film to stumble out of the gate following Shazam: Fury of the Gods‘ $30.1 million in March and The Flash‘s $55 million in June.

Internationally, Blue Beetle earned an estimated $18 million, for a global total of $43.4 million.

Breathing down Blue Beetle‘s neck in second place was Barbie with an estimated $21.5 million in its fifth week of release. To date, the film has collected an estimated $567.3 million at the North American box office and is poised to overtake The Super Mario Bros. Movie — with $574 million — as the biggest domestic release of the year. Its global tally now stands at $1.3 billion.

Oppenheimer landed in third place with an estimated $10.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $285.2 million. Globally, the movie has generated $717.8 million, making it director Christopher Nolan‘s fourth-highest-grossing movie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem took fourth place with an estimated $8.4 million. Its three-week total now stands at $88.1 million domestically and $118.4 million globally.

Rounding out the top five was Strays, the R-rated comedy featuring the voices of Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park, which stumbled in its debut with an estimated $3.8 million at the North American Box Office. Internationally, Strays grabbed an estimated $1.9 million for a global tally of $10 million.