The Flash is flopping.
Despite Warner Bros. attempting to put a positive spin on its opening weekend yesterday evening by sharing early estimates of a $72 million "4-day" haul with the trades, the sad fact is the Scarlet Speedster's first big screen solo out has fallen drastically short of the 3-day estimates which have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
Early tracking suggested a massive $140 million debut, though that always seemed unlikely. Still, with The Flash hailed as "the greatest superhero movie ever made" and so much positive buzz from early screenings, an opening north of $100+ million didn't seem too unrealistic.
We've since seen tracking point to a more conservative $70 million - $75 million debut, but after earning $24.5 million on Friday, The Flash will struggle to reach even $60 million by Sunday night. Over the 4-day Juneteenth weekend, the DC Comics adaptation may limp to $70 million but rival studios believe it will make significantly less.
Warner Bros.' lowest non-pandemic DCEU opening since Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, The Flash won't even top Black Adam's $67 million debut last October.
Box office pundits are scrambling to figure out what went wrong, especially when talking about a movie that features Batman and Supergirl along with a hero who has already been established in the DCEU with appearances on the big and small screens.
Among the possibilities are the controversies surrounding Ezra Miller, the fact this brand is damaged beyond repair after more bad movies than good since 2013's Man of Steel, and people no longer thinking 2023's titles matter with a reboot looming.
A "B: CinemaScore suggests word of mouth is skewing on the negative side, and that eliminates the likelihood of The Flash having legs in the weeks to come. Overseas, we're hearing that the movie is similarly struggling to draw a large audience, so the Fastest Man Alive won't be saved by international moviegoers.
With muted excitement for Blue Beetle and constant negative reports about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Warner Bros. might want to reconsider changing its approach to marketing the remnants of the DCEU. At the very least, DC Studios boss James Gunn needs to stop hyping up and promoting these titles in interviews and across social media as the DCU - and Superman: Legacy - will surely have to be distanced from these movies as much as possible.
"Far from the greatest superhero movie ever made and not quite among the worst," we said in our review, "The Flash is still another mediocre effort from the DCEU with appalling VFX and a messy story that the excellent Michael Keaton and Sasha Calle alone are unable to save."
The Flash is now playing in theaters.