Experts Say Flash’s Disastrous Start at the Box Office Spells Trouble for DC. The disappointing opening weekend for The Flash has been branded a “disaster” for DC Studios.
The Flash “should be opening at $120 million domestic,” an unidentified industry veteran who has worked on several major picture campaigns told Variety. Instead, it launched to a disappointing $55 million. They went on to say, “This is an unqualified catastrophe.”
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Experts who spoke to Variety projected the production and marketing budgets for DC Studios’ 2023 release slate, which includes Shazam 2, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman 2, to be between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion, leaving the remaining two films a lot of ground to make up.
Although recent competition from films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has entirely surpassed it so far, The Flash is expected to continue doing well at the box office for a few more weeks after its June 15 launch. The film grossed $120.5 million in its opening weekend and $55.42 million in its second weekend, both of which were more than the opening weekend of The Flash.
However, the show’s abundance of cameos, which have been called “odd” and “offensive” by some, has dominated the discourse around The Flash.
Whether or if DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran are keen to bring the Flash back sooner rather than later may also be called into doubt by the film’s underwhelming box office result.
Even though he has already been hired by DC to direct Batman: The Brave and the Bold, one of five movies in Chapter 1 of the new DCU, director Andy Muschietti has not ruled out a sequel.
After Henry Cavill declared his return to the franchise and was snubbed a few months later, with his DCEU teammates experiencing similar fates, it seems pretty futile to listen to anyone other than Gunn or Safran for verdicts on the DCU.
IGN has contacted Warner Bros. for a response on the film’s poor performance at the box office.
