All the reasons why The Flash has been a box-office flop
The Flash has continued a rough period for DC movies at the box office, despite the early hype about the long-delayed outing for Ezra Miller's Barry Allen.
After a softer-than-expected debut at the US box office, there was a chance that The Flash could rebound without any major new openers to rival it. However, it went on to do exactly the opposite and record the worst-ever week-on-week drop for a DC movie.
It's only in its second week of release, but the movie already looks to be on its way out with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse proving to be a bigger draw worldwide, despite the fact it's been out for four weeks.
So where did it all go wrong for The Flash?
Let's start with the numbers. After its second weekend, The Flash has grossed $210.9 million worldwide, with $87.6 million coming from the US box office and $123.3 million from overseas territories.
It's worth noting that, although these numbers aren't great, The Flash has already overtaken the global haul of Shazam! Fury of the Gods ($133.8 million), as well as the final results for Birds of Prey ($201 million), Wonder Woman 1984 ($166.4 million) and The Suicide Squad ($167 million).
So, in other words, it could be worse. It's still not something to be celebrated though as after its huge drop, The Flash faces a challenge to match Black Adam's $391.2 million worldwide tally.
With both movies said to have a production budget of around $200 million (not counting marketing costs), that was a result deemed bad enough for Black Adam to not go forward with a planned sequel, a fate sure to befall The Flash as well.
The Flash 2 always seemed an unlikely prospect anyway, given that a new DC universe will start in July 2025 with Superman: Legacy. It's the incoming arrival of this potential reset that has been used as a reason for DC's recent struggles: why would people go and see movies that don't matter?
However, that's likely too simple a reason. The likes of The Batman ($766 million) and Joker ($1.07 billion) weren't affected by their lack of connection to what's to come in DC's future. It's possible that the general blockbuster audience wouldn't even be aware that The Flash might not even matter, canon-wise, going forward.
There are a number of other factors that feel more likely to have had an impact on The Flash's underperformance at the box office, starting with Ezra Miller.
We're not necessarily talking about the controversies surrounding the actor, although that likely did lead to some fans boycotting the movie. Instead it's the fact that they're just not an established box-office draw and as much as Warner Bros tried to focus on the return of Michael Keaton's Batman, it's still a Flash movie at the end of the day.
Perhaps this approach could have worked if Keaton did more press for the movie, but in the absence of Miller and Keaton from the press tour, it was left to director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti and Supergirl actor Sasha Calle to do the majority of the pre-release interviews.
As good as Sasha Calle is in the movie with what little she's given, she also isn't a big draw for a wider audience who, more likely, were wondering where Henry Cavill was. For a comic book movie to break out beyond the core fanbase, you need the promotional tour with the big names, and The Flash just didn't have it.
Perhaps aware of the challenges of their promotional tour, Warner Bros leaned hard into building the hype for the movie, even going as far as screening a "non-final" version at CinemaCon two months ahead of release.
It appeared to be a strategy that was working as it led to a lot of early buzz for The Flash, but perhaps it came too early. When reviews finally came out on June 6, the response was decidedly more mixed. The movie currently has a 65% Rotten Tomatoes rating which isn't bad, but it isn't the kind of reaction that makes for a must-see movie.
Ahead of release, there was also a series of free fan screenings across the US intended to build more positive reactions.
It's possible this strategy backfired too as A) the fans who would have paid to see opening weekend had already seen it and B) key moments, including a major Batman cameo, leaked online. If you've seen the big moments, it's less likely you'd go to see The Flash at cinemas if you were already on the fence about it.
Some might also point to superhero fatigue as a final main factor in The Flash flopping at the box office. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 ($826 million) and Across the Spider-Verse ($560 million) have shown that's not really a thing as long as the movie is good enough, but there is something to be said about timing.
The Flash has been in the works in various forms for several years and in that time, its once-unique multiverse story had been beaten to the screen by two Spider-Man movies (No Way Home and Across the Spider-Verse), among others. A multiverse story might once have been a strong selling point, but in June 2023, it was par for the course.
Overall, The Flash's poor box office performance probably can't be attributed to one sole factor, and more down to a perfect storm of pre-release issues, each one building to a general sense of apathy towards the movie.
Perhaps in another universe, The Flash was a billion-dollar success, but in this universe, it never stood a chance.
The Flash is out now in cinemas.
You Might Also Like
