Wow! Who saw this coming?
The Flash is estimated to possibly bomb big time at the box office with a really weak opening for a flick that cost roughly $220 million+ to make.
According to the trades, The Flash box office will start off with a crawl somewhere in the $70 million range.
THR reports according to sources who have access to box office tracking data “that’s a soft number for a movie that’s been heavily promoted by Warner Brothers Discovery as the best superhero film of all time.”
Both David Zaslav and the new co-head of the DCU James Gunn have stated it’s one of the best superhero movies of all time, but what if nobody goes to see it? That’s what happened with Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam with a similar opening ($67 million )and recently with Zachary Levi’s Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Are the fans going to come out for the return of the Michael Keaton Batman in a movie that has been compared to the billion-dollar Spider-Man: No Way Home which features three Spider-Men? We’ll have to wait and see.
The Flash will need great legs
Also as I have been reporting, THR adds that The Flash will need big legs to be a success.
James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3 also opened soft relatively for a Marvel and Guardians movie, but the box office is performing pretty decent as it’s a good flick and a lot better than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Thor: Love and Thunder and pretty much everything Marvel has put out of late except for Spider-Man since the release of Infinity War. So, yeah, Guardians has legs.
Time to worry?
What is particularly worrisome for The Flash is Warner Bros. debuted it at CinemaCon and has been having special fan screenings, however, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz. I actually wonder if there is no buzz because basically, the entire plot of the movie has leaked, which includes surprise cameos, as the director recently spoiled a huge cameo (that was already spoiled).
It reminds me of how Dwayne Johnson and his team spoiled the Henry Cavill Superman cameo in Black Adam in the hopes it would create buzz and increase ticket sales. Well, that didn’t work.
Warner Bros. also can’t use Ezra Miller to promote the film who is the star of the movie. Miller has been in a heap of trouble as of late and doesn’t connect with a majority of the audience. Maybe they will get things right someday.
WB has actually been using actors to help promote the flick as various celebrities have been posting reactions to the film. Yeah, it’s kind of odd, but what are they supposed to do? Not promote anything?
Blame Ezra Miller
If The Flash bombs at the box office, what’s it say about Andy Muschietti who James Gunn has confirmed will be a part of the new DCU? I suppose they can just blame Ezra Miller, so no worries there.
The flick also has some competition as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts opens a week prior, Disney’s Elemental opens the same day (tracking for $40 million), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens two weeks later.
The Flash opens June 16.
