“The Flash” with Ezra Miller (30) starts poorly in North American cinemas. The DC Extended Universe film has grossed a disappointing $55 million in the US and Canada since its June 16 release. This is reported, among other things, by the industry magazine “Variety”.
In Germany, “The Flash” also had a modest start. 90,000 spectators generated sales of 965,000 euros. The superhero competition “Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse” remained at number one in the German cinema charts for the third week in a row.
“The Flash” even undercut the defensive forecasts. Those responsible had expected 70 million, as “Variety” also reported. Other analysts put it in a range of $68 million to $85 million. At a cost of a good 200 million dollars, “The Flash” is already in danger of becoming a flop.
One reason for the failure could be the quarrels surrounding Ezra Miller. The leading man has been sidelined for three years by a series of scandals. He did not complete a classic promotional tour for his film.
At 55 million, “The Flash” does even worse than “Black Adam”, one of DC’s biggest flops. The film, starring Dwayne Johnson (51), grossed 67 million on its opening weekend last October. In contrast to “Black Adam”, however, “The Flash” received good, if not raving, reviews beforehand. But even an advertising campaign on Twitter that was explicitly aimed at US Father’s Day on Sunday was unsuccessful for “The Flash”.
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. In March 2023, “Shazam 2” grossed only 30.5 million US dollars in the first three days.
One hope remains for the DC comic filmmakers. “The Flash” could develop in a similar way to “Aquaman”. Jason Momoa’s (43) debut as an underwater hero also brought in just $67 million at launch in December 2018. In the course of its theatrical release, “Aquaman” then developed into a success.
