With an 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes,
you'd think "The Flash" would be killing it at the box office. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and we're
here to tell you why. After one of the most chaotic and controversial
production cycles seen in recent years, "The Flash" is finally in theaters. "Oh my god! Flash!" "Hi." "I love you!" The superhero flick was released on June 16
in the United States, backed by a hefty budget of $200 million, with an additional $100 million
reportedly being s
pent on marketing. As of now, according to recent box-office
reports by Deadline and Variety, it doesn't look like Warner Bros. will be celebrating
the film's returns any time soon. In the United States, "The Flash" only earned
around $55 million during its first three days, and projections for the future are not
looking good. Internationally, the movie seems only to have
captured around $75 million. Overall, "The Flash" has only made about $139
million thus far — definitely not what studio head
s were hoping for. This may come as an awkward surprise since
the film was being touted as one of the best superhero flicks ever made prior to its release,
with comparisons to "The Dark Knight" being brought up earlier in the year. "Very poor choice of words." Ahead of its release, the movie had several
high-profile supporters. Naturally, DCU boss James Gunn had monumental
praise for "The Flash." Allegedly, Tom Cruise personally professed
how much he loved the film to director Andy Muschietti. S
o what went wrong? Simply put, "The Flash" was severely hindered
due to the nearly countless allegations against Ezra Miller. With multiple arrests and accusations of assault,
allegations of grooming minors, and felony burglary charges, the accounts against the
actor appeared endless before the film entered its promotional phase. Asking even the most ardent comic book fan
to get thrilled about a long-awaited superhero flick is a tall order when the main star is
constantly making headlines for al
l the wrong reasons. Of course, Warner Bros. worked hard to shield
the film from the immense controversy. Aside from attending the Los Angeles premiere,
Miller had next to no involvement in promoting "The Flash." Sasha Calle, who portrayed Supergirl, was
a prominent interviewee leading up to the film's release. And, of course, the movie's trailers were
quick to put an emphasis on the multiple returning Batmen. "The Flash" featured Ben Affleck donning the
cowl once more and also saw Michael Keato
n reprise the role for the first time since
1992's "Batman Returns." "You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts." Closer to the official release, smaller cameos
were also hyped; Muschietti revealed Nicolas Cage would appear as Superman before the movie
was released, though he later claimed this was an accidental leak. As fun as all these appearances and Easter
eggs might be for fans, Ezra Miller's name is simply proving to be too cumbersome. Despite the glowing and well-publicized praise
"The Flash" re
ceived prior to hitting the silver screen, the movie seems to be getting
a lukewarm response from critics, with a score of 66% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score was much more positive,
sitting at around 85%, and Cinemascore gave the movie a B. In addition, Looper's own Dominic
Griffin assigned the movie a middling 5/10 rating. These certainly aren't the worst scores, especially
for a superhero movie. However, a film with the amount of baggage
"The Flash" carries needs to be great. It needs
to inspire; it needs to drum up endless
excitement. In short, "The Flash" needed to be borderline
perfect. While an average Marvel film might have fared
okay with these reviews, "The Flash" most certainly does not have that luxury. For about a decade now, superhero fans have
been wary of DC films. While Warner Bros. has proven they can knock
it out of the park with some of their properties, their latest films have received little fanfare
or worthwhile praise. "Black Adam" was released in October
2022,
and despite boasting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and a strong supporting cast, the film faltered
at the box office and received little praise from critics. "He didn't make it." In March 2023, despite the success of its
predecessor, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" was met with dismal box-office
earnings, receiving only $133 million on a budget of around $125 million. Reviews weren't kind, either. Combined with Ezra Miller's numerous controversies
and the mediocre reviews, fans may have found it e
asy to pass on the Scarlet Speedster's
adventure after remembering some of DC's latest cinematic outings. Another reason that "The Flash" isn't performing
well is that "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" was released on June 2nd, and its impressive
run at the box-office is still going strong. As of the making of this video, the film has
reportedly raked in close to $500 million. And not too surprisingly, the Webhead is proving
to be tough competition for everyone at the box office, not just "T
he Flash." Disney and Pixar's "Elemental" was also released
on June 16th, and is facing similar struggles at the box office. With an estimated budget of $200 million,
the Pixar flick reportedly debuted at only $29.5 million. It looks like "Elemental" and "The Flash"
might be on the same leaky boat, and that rascal Miles Morales might be partly to blame. It'll be interesting to track "The Flash"
as it treks through its days in theaters. It still has time to make some type of financial
splash, but
it's not looking good so far.
Comments
I don't understand why they didn't just drop Ezra Miller when actual crimes were reported but they were more than ready to drop Johnny Depp at the drop of a hat. That's just absolutely horrendous.
You don’t think DC getting rid of Cavil and abandoning the current DCU had anything to do with it? I personally think that’s more of an issue than the lead.
After what they did to Johnny Depp I think keeping Ezra Millar was a huge mistake.
Ezra is simply crazy, the guy puts out strong Psycho vibes. Most people are gonna get turned off by him and dodge the movie, even if the movie is great. Bad move for Warner Bros keepin him. Anyways the kicker on why the movie is Tanking is WB is Rebooting the whole DCEU so why would people see it
It's hard to stay committed to the current slate of DC movies when you know that a complete reboot is right around the corner. If you fell in love with the DCEU, knowing that all of that is about to change leaves little reason to care about what's left.
Why don’t they just use the guy from the show, he seems cool
You played it very safe by not commenting on the fact that there was an announcement of a hard reboot in the midst of multiple projects, being dropped, and how that could effect fans from wanting to watch more films that would ultimately lead nowhere for future content tied to the DCU.
The main problem is airing at the same time as spider man and Ezra miller being insane, he did good as flash but too bad real life he’s just literally insane
I would have rather seen Keaton in a live action Batman Beyond
It actually reminded me of all the crazy stuff Ezra did.
I think ppl tend to underestimate how important marketing is to a movies overall performance. The Flash had next to no press and it’s main star’s controversy severely hindered what they were able to do.
It just doesn't make sense for Zod and Krpytonians being the villains in a Flash movie.
Not gonna lie, Grant Gustin should have been in this. Ezra made a cameo on The Flash TV show. Why wasn't he doing the same?
Answer: because Ezra Miller is in it.
DC has a serious storytelling problem, a front office problem, and until they get some stability in both areas DC will continue to struggle at the box office.
Flash was definitely an entertaining movie! I will say I had a lot of reservations and hesitations to seeing the movie due to Ezra Miller scandals. But I gave it a chance, and I wasn’t disappointing. I enjoyed many cameos from all the old Batman and Superman‘s. The store line was OK. Definitely a six out of 10.
“It was me Barry. I choked that woman at super speed so when you tried to stopped me it’d look like you were the one doing it.”
I was just happy to see Batmen doing their thing.
Saw this in 4DX and do not regret it. It's funny and has plenty of action, which when coupled with physical effects works well. Story wise, it could have been better but even so it is not that predictable. Enjoyed the various cameos!
Despite Ezra being just so troublesome offscreen, I really enjoyed the movie.