LOS ANGELES, Aug 21 — It was a good news/bad news weekend for Blue Beetle, the latest superhero film to hit North American theatres and the first built around a live-action Latino protagonist.

The DC Studios/Warner Bros. production topped the charts for the Friday-through-Sunday period and even dethroned Barbie, that reigning queen of pinkness, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

But its estimated take of US$25.4 million was "the lowest DC superhero debut of this era” other than 2021’s money-losing Wonder Woman 1984.

Beetle stars 22-year-old American actor Xolo Mariduena — who is of mixed Mexican, Cuban and Ecuadoran descent — as a new college graduate whose body is taken over by the mysterious Scarab, which gives him superhuman powers.

Analyst David A. Gross said that while ticket sales for Beetle were only a third the average for new superhero flicks, reviews have been good and overseas prospects are strong.

Barbie, in its fifth week out, scored US$21.5 million in ticket sales, "a huge result at this point in its theatrical run,” according to Variety. The Warner Bros. fantasy-comedy has now taken in an eye-popping US$1.27 billion globally.

In third, also in its fifth week out, was Universal’s Oppenheimer, at US$10.6 million. The historical drama about the origins of the first atomic bomb has passed the US$700 million mark globally.

Fourth place went to Paramount’s animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, at US$8.4 million. Its huge voice cast includes Maya Rudolph, Ayo Edebiri, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube and Paul Rudd.

And in fifth was Universal’s new talking-dog comedy Strays, at US$8.3 million, a concerning start for a movie made on a US$46 million budget.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

Meg 2: The Trench (US$6.7 million)

Talk to Me (US$3.2 million)

Haunted Mansion (US$3 million)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (US$2.7 million)

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (US$2.5 million) — AFP