Andy Muschietti’s The Flash false started at the weekend box office with a much lower than expected $55.1 million haul.
Predictions ranged from ludicrous internet claims (north of $100 million) to conservative studio estimates ($75 million), but DC fans and Warner execs alike had to be shocked at how far off both camps were.
Even proclamations of greatness by Stephen King and new DC movie boss James Gunn couldn’t help get fans into the theater, and middling reviews and viewer polls didn’t help either. The Flash’s Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits at 66% (with a much higher Audience Score of 85%) and ticket buyers who were asked their opinion of the super hero film by CinemaScore graded The Flash with a disappointing “B”.
Realistically, $55 million stateside is about what The Flash should have made based on a number of factors, none of them positive. Aside from the lame-duck aspect of the pre-Gunn DC Universe and the recent crime spree of The Flash star Ezra Miller, theaters are currently stuffed with films geared at the same demographic, making it difficult for any film (other than Spider-Verse) to continue to make bank on a week-to-week basis. It also appears that the nostalgia that has worked for other franchises did not bring in Michael Keaton Batman fans to a great degree, but one has to wonder how The Flash would have fared without the presence of the original big screen Bat.
In more positive news, Miles Morales continues to climb the box office walls with a third place finish and a $27 million dollar weekend. Across the Spider-Verse actually beat last week’s champ, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which finished in fourth place with an additional $20 million. With all of the “Spider-love” going around, it is highly likely that Spider-Verse will beat The Flash next week in its fourth weekend at the multiplex. And although Muschietti continued Zack Snyder’s take on Barry Allen as a lovable goofball, it is clear that fans prefer to stick with the original awkward teen super hero instead.
Stay tuned to Conskipper for our take on another competitive weekend next week (and the rest of the summer for that matter).