‘The Flash’ Box Office Flameout: David Zaslav’s Regime Suffers First Major Miss
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By late April, all indications pointed to The Flash opening to $100 million or more domestically. That’s when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, triumphantly telling theater owners it was the best superhero pic he’s ever seen.
The powerful executive could have easily kept a poker face and distanced himself from The Flash considering it was made by the previous regime. Instead, Zaslav bet on it as if it were his own. That included arranging for Tom Cruise — who was still basking in the afterglow of Top Gun: Maverick — to watch the movie, with his positive reaction becoming a talking point on the press tour. Zaslav’s newly installed DC Studios co-chief and top lieutenant James Gunn also trumpeted The Flash, although he tempered his remarks, saying in January it is “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Whatever the wording, expectations skyrocketed.
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But in a stunning turn, The Flash, one of the most anticipated films on the 2023 summer calendar, was a major box office miss in its launch. The tentpole, starring Ezra Miller in the titular role, opened to a dismal $55 million over the June 16-18 weekend, on par with past DC bomb Watchmen ($55.2 million) and not far ahead of infamous DC stumble Green Lantern ($53.5 million), not adjusted for inflation.
“It is unfathomable to me why Zas and James Gunn promise how wonderful any picture or new plan will be months into the future. The public doesn’t care and isn’t aware of their prognostications,” one veteran studio executive tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting that such forecasts don’t sway the share price or potential buyers. “Let the product talk.”
And talk The Flash did, albeit not in a healthy way as it opened in cinemas around the globe. Things went from bad to worse as poor word-of-mouth spread.
Based on Friday traffic, The Flash was expected to earn $58 million for the three-day weekend and $70 million for the four-day Juneteenth holiday weekend, according to Saturday morning estimates issued by Warners. But grosses were downgraded on Sunday morning and again on Monday after traffic fell off more than expected. By Sunday, Warners released a four-day estimated gross of $64.2 million, including $55.7 million for the three days. The final weekend numbers that came out Tuesday were even lower — $55 million for the three days and $61.2 million for the four (the three-day number is considered the official opening gross).
Observers note that while The Flash is not as well-known as a Batman or a Wonder Woman, the character is not obscure. “Was it going to be an Avengers-level hit? Probably not, that would have been an unfair expectation, but it had a clear pathway to at least be what a film like Days of Future Past was for X-Men nine years ago after that franchise seemingly lost its way with confusing timelines and dwindling continuity,” says box office analyst Shawn Robbins of Boxoffice Pro. “The increasingly disjointed state of DC storylines is as equally to blame as other outside factors, leaving the franchise at a point where lack of consistency prevented the kind of emotional connection with most of its characters that a sprawling universe needs.”
The story looked much different in February when the first trailer debuted to fanfare. “The Flash looked like it had so much potential following its Super Bowl trailer. Hopes were very high. Instead, it is more DC Comics mediocrity,” says Wall Street analyst Eric Handler. “Zaslav could have easily swept it under the rug since he inherited it.”
Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian is somewhat more forgiving, noting, “The Flash unfortunately had a rough road to the multiplex and given the complexities and challenges of the marketing and positioning of the film in the marketplace, the number one debut is actually a solid result for the latest from DC Comics in such a crowded and competitive summer season.”
The Flash was slapped with a B CinemaScore, which is really the equivalent of a C or worse when it comes to all-audience event pics. Exit scores on PostTrak were also unusually bad, with only 58 percent of ticket buyers saying they would recommend the film, and 77 percent saying it was excellent or very good. That compares to an 82 percent definite recommend score for Sony’s fellow superhero pic Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and 93 percent excellent/very good ranking (Across the Spider-Verse opened the week before.)
The gender breakdown was also an issue. While most superhero films and big action films often skew notably male — think 62 percent or 63 percent — The Flash prompted many to do a double take to make sure they were reading the numbers right. Around 72 percent or 73 percent of ticket buyers were male, according to PostTrak.
Like audiences, critics disagreed with Zaslav and Gunn’s assessment, resulting in a lukewarm Tomatometer score of 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Considering Zaslav and Gunn’s confidence, many were surprised when The Flash officially came on tracking three weeks ahead of its debut to an underwhelming forecast of $70 million. They assumed tracking services, and Warner Bros., were being conservative. If only that were true.
To be sure, Warners was in a tough spot when it came to the tentpole’s marketing and publicity campaign, helping to explain why Zaslav stepped in. Miller was arrested multiple times last year, culminating in the actor issuing a statement in August 2022 apologizing for their behavior and saying they would receive help for “complex mental health issues.” Miller did no press for The Flash in the months leading up to the pic’s release aside from walking the red carpet at the film’s Los Angeles premiere and making brief remarks.
Box office pundits believe Miller’s woes may have turned off some moviegoers, but not enough to inflict the sort of damage that was wrought. “No one would care if Miller promoted the picture; he isn’t a movie star and has no following,” says another source.
Often, a Hollywood event pic that finds itself in trouble domestically can make up ground overseas. In this case, there’s no such assurances. The Flash, which opened day-and-date in almost every major market, bowed to a muted $75 million internationally. Notes an insider close to the film, “When a movie doesn’t work, it just doesn’t work.”
The film’s financial standing will become more clear in its second weekend.
Development on The Flash spanned three regimes at Warners and figured prominently into former DC Films boss Walter Hamada’s plans for the universe. Hamada commissioned a sequel script from Aquaman scribe David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, one that would ultimately lead to a crossover event titled Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, those plans were scrapped after Gunn and Peter Safran ascended to the top DC posts. And while no Flash sequel was part of the duo’s immediate grand plans, announced in January, they were open to Miller returning to the role, possibly as a supporting character in other projects (that seems less likely now in the wake of The Flash’s bomb). Also, the team Zaslav assembled did make some changes to The Flash, including a key moment at the end of the film that was orchestrated by Gunn and Safran.
Had The Flash transformed into a blockbuster, it’s difficult to imagine that a sequel wouldn’t have been considered. A studio doesn’t spend hundreds of millions on a film that doesn’t have stand-alone franchise potential. And Gunn and Safran may have not said too much in January, considering that Miller was still addressing their personal issues. Safran and Gunn, however, have hired Flash director Andy Muschietti to direct a Batman film titled The Brave and the Bold. The news was revealed on the evening of June 15 as Flash previews began in select cinemas across North America. (In a twinned move, Warners announced it has struck an overall TV and movie deal with the filmmaker and his sibling/producing partner, Barbara Muschietti.)
Says Robbins, “The hope now is that DC’s new regime can provide enough of a clean slate for the uninitiated to feel comfortable jumping back into the pool.”
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