When early tracking for The Flash first found its way online, it pointed to a massive $115 million - $140 million opening weekend for the long-delayed DC Comics movie. While it was more of an early guestimate than actual tracking data, it appears Warner Bros.' aggressive marketing campaign for "the best superhero movie ever made™" had paid off.
Well, the movie has actually hit tracking boards today and it's currently targeting a soft $70 million opening.
There are still a few weeks left to turn things around, but this is a debut in the same range as Black Adam's $65 million. At the time, there were attempts to spin that as a win, but like Dwayne Johnson's passion project, The Flash boasts a huge budget. It's thought to have cost somewhere around $220+ million, and that may not include several rounds of reshoots.
In fairness, 2018's Aquaman opened with $67 million and ultimately grossed over $1 billion, but that was pre-COVID and over the holidays rather than right in the middle of the summer.
Elemental will slow down The Flash with a similarly so-so $40 million opening weekend, and in the weeks that follow, both movies face stiff competition from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.
What's gone wrong with The Flash? The movie has received nothing but positive social media reviews since early screenings began in April and everyone from James Gunn to Tom Cruise has given it the thumbs up. Ezra Miller remains a problem, sure, though their antics seem to have gone largely unnoticed by casual filmgoers.
Instead, the DC brand as a whole appears tarnished after a series of seemingly endless critical and commercial disappointments. Also not helping matters is the fact fans know a reboot is on the way and that, while The Flash once set the stage for a new DCEU, it's now largely meaningless for what the DCU has in store for us.
The Flash arrives in theaters on June 16.