Warner Bros. fails to learn from The Flash's failings as fan screenings for Blue Beetle begin in the UK
Warner Bros. repeated the free-screening strategy that preceded The Flash's record-setting box office flop, this time ahead of Blue Beetle's release.
Warner Bros. held a free fan screening for Blue Beetle in London on July 24, 2023, according to reporting from ComicBookMovie.com, reviving a promotional strategy the studio had used ahead of The Flash's release just weeks earlier -- a film that went on to become, per the same report, the biggest box office flop in Warner Bros.' 100-year history.
Director Angel Manuel Soto and producers Zev Foreman and John Rickard attended the London event, according to the report. Blue Beetle, starring Xolo Maridueña as Jaime Reyes, was set for release on August 18, 2023.
The report's author, Josh Wilding, cited box office tracking pointing to a projected $12 million to $17 million opening weekend for Blue Beetle -- figures that had not yet been confirmed by an actual opening at the time of the report, since the film had not yet been released.
What went wrong with The Flash's fan screenings
According to the report, Warner Bros. had used free fan screenings to build buzz ahead of The Flash, but the strategy backfired in three ways: spoilers spread on social media and became "impossible to escape," positive reactions posted by attendees on Twitter were not reflected in the film's largely tepid critical reviews, and fans who had already seen the film for free at screenings did not contribute to opening-weekend box office receipts.
The critique of repeating the strategy
It sure didn't help The Flash...
That is how Wilding characterized the value of glowing fan reactions to Warner Bros.' prior DC releases, arguing the studio was again hoping to generate buzz from what he described as hardcore DC fans who had also given enthusiastic reviews to underperforming films including Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, per the report.
What it signals about the DC brand
The report frames Warner Bros.' decision to repeat a screening strategy tied to one of its biggest recent box office failures as evidence the studio was betting on enthusiast buzz to offset broader audience skepticism toward the DC film slate heading into Blue Beetle's release -- a pattern the article does not resolve, since Blue Beetle's actual opening weekend results were not yet known at the time of this reporting.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by ComicBookMovie.com. It restores a story originally published on this site in July 2023; figures are as reported at the time.