I kind of expected this, but didn’t want it to happen. The Flash is predictably failing miserably at the box office due to lukewarm reviews, confusion over the state of the franchise, and general dislike for a certain actor in the leading role.
I really wanted this movie to work given the fact Michael Keaton is back as Batman, but I understand why it has failed.
The Flash has badly underperformed during its opening box office weekend as its only made $55M of an expected $70M haul, leaving the new DC under James Gunn and Peter Safran in a very bad situation. And, even though I liked the movie, I see why this film failed with audiences.
Now, I’m not going to give a detailed plot explanation for the film as that’s not what this article is about and I want to give a little time before I spoil the whole thing, so I’m just going to solely focus on the box office numbers and review scores that have come out for the film thus far.
And, to be honest, they’re not the greatest to start off the new DC franchise.
As I said, The Flash has only taken in $55M from its opening box office weekend and isn’t expected to make anything close to its combined $200M production budget and $100M marketing budget, let alone make enough money to resuscitate a DC franchise that is turning out busts after busts like its candy on Halloween.
Seriously, the last SIX DC Films, Birds of Prey (2020), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), The Suicide Squad (2021), Black Adam (2022), Shazam 2 (2023), and now The Flash (2023), all lost money at the box office on budgets of $300M+, while The Flash was the highest ranked movies with audiences on IMDb with a 7.4/10 score.
Six straight films with an IMDb score of 7.5/10 and less? That’s unacceptable for a franchise as massive as DC.
Though, it being the highest ranked out the movies shouldn’t reassure any DC fan as the film currently has a 67% score with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, a 56/100 score on Metacritic from critics, a 5.9/10 average score from the general public on Metacritic, and an impressive 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Nevertheless, even with that impressive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the reason why this film is simply failing at the box office is due to the fact that the general public and hardcore DC fans alike simply don’t want to see a movie from a deceased film continuity that’s lead by a person accused of everything under the sun.
I really don’t know why DC, James Gunn, and Peter Safran thought it would be a good idea to unofficially start off the Gunn DC Universe, reintroduce some of the DC legends, such as Michael Shannon’s General Zod and Michael Keaton’s Batman, and debut legendary DC characters, such as Supergirl, on the big screen.
With this movie technically being one of the last DCEU films, a franchise so reviled by DC and Warner Bros. they brought in Peter Gunn to destroy it, the film never stood a chance of getting a sequel or prequel treatment.
So why would you go all out with the casting of Keaton, Shannon, and introduction of Supergirl? That makes no sense.
(DC/Warner Bros. Discovery-The Flash-Final Trailer)
They should have waited until the actual Gunn DC Universe takes full effect to introduce Supergirl to the big screen and reintroduce Michael Keaton and Michael Shannon. At least people would actually look forward to seeing these legends in a sequel film, rather than lamenting how this is probably the last time we’ll see Keaton and Shannon in their, respective, roles.
And, what makes even less sense is the fact DC decided to keep Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash.
The man has literally been accused of every vile crime apart from murder in the last few years as he allegedly assaulted woman, groomed children, kidnapped/lured a child away from their parents and home, and allegedly threatened to murder/harm a random couple (here’s a Rolling Stone article that covers all of these controversies if you don’t believe me).
Safran, Gunn, and the DC and Warner Bros. executives easily could have replaced Miller and reshoot his scenes as the movie was delayed a good 5 years (if not longer), yet they doomed their own film due to a weird obsession over him and his awful acting.
It makes no sense?
So, I’m sad that this film has gotten such a bad wrap given the controversies surrounding it as they’re some great elements in it, yet said controversies overshadow the creativity and brilliance too much for it to be “one of the greatest superhero films ever” as Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav would have us believe.
Images Source: Featured Image: (DC/Warner Bros. Discovery) (The Flash Final Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprhe-cWKGs)
In Text Image 1: (DC/Warner Bros. Discovery) (The Flash Final Trailer-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprhe-cWKGs)
Other Sources: (Rolling Stone) (https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/ezra-miller-the-flash-timeline-arrests-controversies-abuse-1234765089/)
