‘The Flash’ flops: How DC’s latest superhero film became the summer’s biggest box office disaster

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No matter how hard The Flash tries to run, the DC superhero won’t be able to escape the tag of being known as the biggest movie flop of the summer.

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Of course, it’s still early, and there are other notable releases that could rush along and steal that moniker. But for now, the film’s lousy US$87 million haul at the box office has industry analysts scratching their heads, trying to figure out what went wrong.

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In the lead up to its June 16 release, the film, which stars Ezra Miller as the Scarlet Speedster and brings back Michael Keaton’s Batman, was racing into theatres on a wave of tremendous hype. Newly installed DC Studios co-chief James Gunn called the entry “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made,” while Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said of the film: “It’s the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen.”

Zaslav even claimed that Tom Cruise saw and loved the movie so much that he called director Andy Muschietti himself to congratulate him, a factoid the filmmaker’s sister and producing partner Barbara confirmed in the days leading up to its debut.

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But The Flash failed to cross the finish line on even modest box office targets in its opening weekend, earning just US$55 million in its first three days. In its second weekend of release, the tentpole plummeted 73% taking in just over $15 million. After reports that it could lose an upwards of $200 million, one industry insider dismissed the film’s performance as an “unmitigated disaster” in an interview with Variety.

Box office analysts observed that while Flash doesn’t have the same brand recognition as Batman or as Wonder Woman, the superhero wasn’t a complete unknown and had been considered one of DC’s bright spots in 2017’s big-screen Justice League film. And after Shazam! Fury of the Gods flopped earlier this year and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam failed to leave a mark on audiences, DC and its parent company Warner Brothers was hoping for a hit.

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“Warner Brothers needed Batman-level grosses, but instead it earned Green Lantern-like money,” Jeff Bock, a box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations, tells Postmedia, referencing Ryan Reynolds’ 2011 misfire. “That’s gonna leave a dark mark in the DCEU.” .

After the film’s first trailer debuted to much fanfare earlier this year, The Flash’s multiverse mash-up was expected to provide a bridge to Gunn’s upcoming DC slate that kicks off in earnest with 2025’s Superman: Legacy. In addition to Keaton’s Batman, the story introduced Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, resurrected Michael Shannon’s villainous General Zod (the Kryptonian bad guy from 2013’s Man of Steel) and was chock-full of surprise cameos, including George Clooney’s return as Bruce Wayne.

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Under the studio’s previous leader, Walter Hamada, there were already ideas for a sequel that lead directly into blockbuster film adaptation of the ’80s miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. Variety reported that a follow-up penned by Aquaman scribe David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was ready to go with Keaton’s Batman and Calle’s new Supergirl figuring into the next story.

But Miller, who uses they/them pronouns, found themselves at the centre of several off-screen controversies last year, including multiple arrests, claims of harassment and accusations that they groomed a preteen child.

In 2020, Miller was also filmed throwing a woman to the ground in Iceland. The incident occurred, the woman told Variety, after she jokingly challenged them to a fight.

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Some fans blamed Miller’s off-screen antics for the film fizzling with audiences, but Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, wasn’t convinced The Flash’s problematic star was the reason it didn’t connect with moviegoers.

“It may have been a factor, it may not have,” Dergarabedian told Postmedia in an interview. “But there were high expectations on this film, and part of that was the head of the company saying it was the best superhero movie ever. That raised those expectations to an unrealistic level. Everyone expected that it would be one of the bigger grossing superhero movies of all time.”

Still, Dergarabedian thinks the studio did the best they could to sell the movie.

“The marketing and promotion people at WB did a fantastic job of dealing with what they had. Considering all the challenges facing The Flash, the fact that it opened as well as it did was impressive.”

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As it introduced a number of alternate-universe ideas, Miller’s spot in the evolving DCU was still very much a question mark before The Flash’s flameout at the box office. Muschietti said he would only make a sequel with Miller back in the title role and Gunn and DC Studios co-head Peter Safran seemed open to the idea of them continuing on as the character.

But despite an enthusiastic Tomatometer score of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences have spoken and Miller’s time as the hero is likely up.

“With all the negative press and all the hoops WB had to jump through to cover up the painful press, it’s not likely Ezra will get another crack at the Flash,” Bock says. “Superhero movies are a massive endeavour for studios and the last thing they need to worry about is a lead actor that is a loose cannon.”

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Dergarabedian says The Flash likely couldn’t outrun an avalanche of hype that it ultimately couldn’t satisfy.

“When it comes to DC, you have a passionate fan base that are actively involved in the promotion of these movies,” he says. “But if you fail, you can’t brush it under the rug.”

But despite The Flash’s failure, comic book movies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. The summer’s biggest movies at the box office are Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

“Superhero fatigue is greatly exaggerated, but I would argue multiverse fatigue is real,” Bock says. Dergarabedian adds that multi-thread stories might need a rethink at the studio level.

“It might be that tastes are shifting and what people want out of superhero movies are changing,” he says. “Maybe people want a decent structure. I like it when filmmakers strip these things down, like they did with Joker. Original stories that are character driven. It’s not the genre, it’s the movie.”

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With two flops in a row, Warners’ superhero slate will fall under scrutiny again when Blue Beetle opens in August and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theatres later this year. But Bock thinks the studio will quickly turn the page as it looks forward to Gunn’s wave of upcoming titles, including Muschietti’s own Batman film.

“WB hired Gunn for a reason; to clean this mess up — and it’s messy right now.”

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Twitter: @markhdaniell

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