The Flash movie, featuring Ezra Miller as the speedy superhero Barry Allen, has failed to achieve the expected box office success. The movie had been projected to earn $70-75 million in its opening weekend.
However, it had a horrible opening weekend of just $55 million, falling short of the lowest expectation of $60 million.
The movie is now the seventh DCEU movie in a row that will fail to gross more than $500 million, and will probably be the seventh in a row to fail to gross more than $400 million.
The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti, written by Christina Hodson from a story by Joby Harold, and produced by Barbara Muschietti. The movie is rolling out with a muted press tour due to recent controversy surrounding its star, Ezra Miller, and many DC fans aren’t sure how to receive it with the change in executive leadership at DC Studios and a soft reboot of sorts looming. It also received mixed reviews, with a barely-fresh 67% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes.
According to Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian, “brands can only get you so far. It’s about the movies themselves, and they have to deliver. “Audiences these days are very savvy and discerning, and in today’s world only the films that have an overwhelmingly positive critical and/or audience response are the ones that break through at the box office”.
Since its first trailer was released on Super Bowl weekend to strong social media reception, The Flash was expected to do better at the box office than the $140 million global opening weekend of the Dwayne Johnson-fronted Black Adam. Instead, it crashed to a $55 million domestic and a $139 million global three-day opening, earning a B from CinemaScore audience polls. Considering that Black Adam earned a B+ from CinemaScore yet fell sharply in its second weekend, The Flash is now in a position where it could very well fail to even match the lacklustre $393 million global total of Black Adam while carrying a $200 million-plus budget.
The movie’s underperformance at the box office has been attributed to a combination of factors such as muted press tour, mixed reviews, recent controversy surrounding its star, and the movie’s inability to deliver.
