Despite very solid ratings, DC superhero film ‘The Flash’ could still be the biggest box office flop of the year in seven league boots. The reason: After the already manageable income on the opening weekend ten days ago, the number of viewers has collapsed immensely since then. According to the statistics platform “Box Office Mojo”, the worldwide earnings of the strip currently amount to around 210 million US dollars. But that’s not even close to being in the black, as the industry website “Coming Soon” now calculates.
Accordingly, the most optimistic forecast is currently 310 million US dollars as the end result. However, since the film cost an estimated 200 to 220 million US dollars and another 150 million US dollars in marketing costs, this is already a big minus for Warner Bros. But since the film studio only part of the recorded sum actually received, the final loss-making business could then amount to the aforementioned 200 million US dollars.
One reason for the failure could be the quarrels surrounding Ezra Miller (30). The leading man has been sidelined for three years by a series of scandals. He therefore did not complete a classic promotional tour for his film.
With 55 million US dollars on its opening weekend in North America, “The Flash” even underperformed “Black Adam”. The film, starring Dwayne Johnson (51), grossed 67 million on its opening weekend in October last year, but ended up being able to save around $393 in worldwide revenue. Unlike “Black Adam,” meanwhile, “The Flash” got good, if not raving, reviews.
With the stuttering start of “The Flash”, the DC Extended Universe is getting deeper and deeper into crisis. The last film “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” flopped even harder than the lightning-fast superhero now. “Shazam 2” only brought in 30.5 million US dollars in March 2023 in the first three days, and around 134 million were recorded at the end.
