After a lengthy production process and incredible hype,The Flashdid not have the theatrical performance that Warner Bros. Discovery and DC had been hoping for. Initially, the film opened to just over $55 million at thedomestic box office. Given that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the budget and marketing costs, the opening was well below what studio execs had been hoping for. In its second weekend, the film dropped by 72%, pulling in $15.1 million. It nearly set the new record as the fastest fall for a tentpole comic book movie, whichMorbiusholds with a 74% drop.
It’s not any better forThe Flashthis week, either. With its third weekend in theaters, the movie has landed in the No. 8 spot for the domestic weekend box office. It pulled in a haul of just $5 million, a number that’s down another 67% compared to its second weekend. That bumps up the film’s domestic total so far to around $99.2 million. If we factor in the $146 earned from overseas ticket sales,The Flashis now sitting at around $245.3 million worldwide. Again, when considering how much it had cost to develop and market the film, it’s looking likeThe Flashwill be costing the studio some big bucks by underperforming to this degree.
For what it’s worth,The Flashisn’t the only box office bomb that’s currently playing in theaters. The new animated featureRuby GIllman, Teenage Kraken, from Universal and DreamWorks Animation, debuted at No. 6 this weekend with a $5.2 million haul domestically. This is said to be the worst opening for any DreamWorks movie, looking unlikely to match its production costs of $70 million.
Elsewhere on the charts, the new filmIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destinylanded in the No. 1 spot with a $60 million debut. That’s followed bySpider-Man: Across the Spider-Versein No. 2, which pulled in another $11.5 million in its fifth weekend in theaters. The rest of the top five includeElementalwith $11.3 million in weekend three;No Hard Feelingswith $7.5 million in weekend two; andTransformers: Rise of the Beastswith $5.2 million in weekend four.
Related:The Flash: Biggest Plot Holes, Explained
The Flash Came Up Short in Theaters, But Why?
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly whyThe Flashfell short, but it could be due to a number of reasons. For one, it seems that fan interest has dwindled in the remaining DC projects that were a part of the DCEU, asBlack AdamandShazam! Fury of the Godsalso underperformed. That came with the announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran were essentially rebooting the DC movie universe, possibly causing some filmgoers not to bother investing in these last DCEU-set films.
One also has to wonder how much thecontroversy involving lead star Ezra Millerhas affected box office performance. On social media, there had been many filmgoers who said they weren’t going to watchThe Flashbased on the criminal charges and problematic accusations that had been made against the actor. By that point, filming had already been completed, so recasting the role was never a realistic option. In any case, the controversy most likely affected the film’s theatrical performance to some extent.
