The Flash is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, according to James Gunn, but unfortunately for Warner Bros. and the newly minted DC Studios chief, many moviegoers haven’t actually bothered to speed to their nearest theater to figure out whether that’s true or not. As highlighted in a new report from Variety, The Flash, which sees the return of Ezra Miller as Barry Allen, only grossed $55 million in the U.S. and Canada when it opened last week, a disappointing figure that has led some industry veterans to call the new film from director Andy Muschietti an “unmitigated disaster.” Warner Bros. released a final trailer for the The Flash last month that showcased the return of Michael Keaton as Batman, but it also killed the hype for some fans, revealing what appeared to be terrible CG.
From a Variety report:
“The Flash” is the second of four mega-budgeted DC adaptations the studio is set to release this year, starting with “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” in March, and followed by “Blue Beetle” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” in August and December. Yet these movies were conceived and greenlit by an executive team that all have departed the studio; in their place, new DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have announced they will reboot the DC franchise in 2025, starting with Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy.”
Indeed, things have not been going well. The production budgets and likely marketing spends for these four films will cost between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion in total, according to experts outside the studio. But “Shazam! 2” has already bombed, earning a feeble $133 million globally. And “The Flash” just opened to a mere $55 million in the U.S. and Canada, grossing $135.7 million worldwide as of June 19 — well under expectations, and nowhere near what a film of this caliber and cost needs to approach breaking even.
“The movie should be opening at $120 million domestic,” says an industry veteran who’s worked on many major campaigns. “This is an unmitigated disaster.” (A spokesperson for Warner Bros. declined to comment.)