At this point, Warner Bros. will take every minor win that it can get with The Flash, which has now firmly cemented its reputation as one of the biggest box office bombs in years. This week, after 19 days of release, the superhero film passed a box office milestone that most other movies its size often pass on their opening day. As of today, The Flash is a member of the $100 million club at the domestic box office. For context, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice grossed $84 million on its first day of release, while the widely detested Suicide Squad movie made $64 million on its opening day.
Directed by Andy Muschietti, The Flash has made $101 million stateside, and another $146 million from international territories, for a running global haul that still hasn’t passed the $250 million mark worldwide. It would be appropriate to remind you at this point that the movie cost more than $200 million to produce, and millions more to market. W.B. didn’t drop the ball on promoting this one at all, but the studio underestimated one key factor: people just aren’t interested in the DC Extended Universe of yore anymore.
Touted by co-chair James Gunn as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time, The Flash debuted last month to shockingly low box office numbers and mediocre reviews. The film could manage only $55 million in its domestic opening weekend, and an equally rough $139 million in its worldwide debut, failing to match the already conservative projections. A recent report suggested that W.B. could have cut its losses by not releasing the movie at all, like it did with Batgirl. But the studio was apparently so pleased with the movie that Muschietti had turned in, it arranged for as many people as possible to watch it prior to release, in order to spread the word about it. It didn't really matter, at the end of the day.
Audiences seem to be over the DCEU for the time being, as Gunn and his co-CEO Peter Safran gear up to reboot the series with Superman: Legacy in 2025. For those keeping score at home, the last three films of the franchise — Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods are the other two — have all bombed miserably. This leaves both the upcoming Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in difficult spots — these are limbo movies, and it would be interesting to see if fans show up in theaters to watch films that clearly seem like hand-me-downs from the previous regime.
Luck Was Never on This Movie's Side, Ever
That being said, a lack of interest wasn’t the only thing working against The Flash. The movie had a famously difficult production, with numerous stops and starts over the years. Everyone from Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa to Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were involved as directors, before Muschietti — fresh off the back-to-back success of It and It: Chapter Two — was hired at the helm. In recent months, the movie attracted more bad publicity because of star Ezra Miller’s personal troubles; they weren’t involved in promoting the film, and only made a brief appearance at the film’s red carpet premiere. If there's a silver lining to this whole story, it hasn't made itself visible just yet. The Flash also stars Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, and Michael Keaton. You can watch our interview with Muschietti here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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