With glowing reactions coming out of CinemaCon and everyone from James Gunn to Tom Cruise hyping up The Flash as "the greatest superhero movie ever made," the Scarlet Speedster's first big screen solo outing became one of the summer's most hotly anticipated titles.
And then it all went wrong.
A dismal opening weekend saw The Flash earn just $55 million, putting it in the same ballpark as 2011's Green Lantern. Making matters worse was a lukewarm critical reception and a clear indication that audiences had also rejected the Multiversal adventure due to a "B" CinemaScore.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have both shed some light on the situation, with one insider pointing out that the DC Studios slate announcement was indeed a detriment to the chances of 2023's DCEU movies finding box office success.
"It’s a perhaps unavoidable but terrible case of timing," a rival studio source says. "Audiences don’t feel like they have to invest two hours of their life because it’s not going to matter going forward."
Even more problematic is how much Warner Bros. spent marketing The Flash; it's estimated that Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have cost upwards of $1.2 billion to market and produce in total.
With the Shazam! sequel earning only $133 million during its entire run and The Flash opening to a mere $55 million, a massive financial loss is inevitable. "The movie should be opening at $120 million domestic," another insider states. "This is an unmitigated disaster."
The fact the studio promised the best the genre had to offer is also a contributing factor to the movie's failure. "When they called it 'the greatest superhero movie' — if it’s not correct, you’re setting yourself up to fail," an unnamed executive says. "In this environment, it’s better to underpromise and overdeliver."
Another adds, "It is unfathomable to me why Zas and James Gunn promise how wonderful any picture or new plan will be months into the future. The public doesn’t care and isn’t aware of their prognostications. Let the product talk."
Oh, and for those of you ready to blame controversial lead star Ezra Miller for The Flash's inability to deliver, one insider has a very different take. "No one would care if Miller promoted the picture; he isn’t a movie star and has no following."
All eyes are now on The Flash as it heads into its second weekend in theaters. Believe it or not, there's already talk that it will be beaten to #1 by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, another reality-hopping adventure which opened at the start of June.