The Flash Is Racing Toward A Disappointing Opening Weekend Box Office
It appears that a few of the myriad potential problems that have been chasing "The Flash" for years now finally caught up to it in its disappointing opening weekend. Deadline reports that it's projected to rack up about $60 million over the traditional three-day weekend, plus another projected $10 million on the Juneteenth holiday on Monday.
That's less than some projections had it earning, and as the Deadline story points out, that could be the result of a variety of rogues running "The Flash" ragged. There are the well-known legal problems for star Ezra Miller, as well as the ongoing WGA strike that has shut down all the mainstream late-night talk shows, a crucial mode of promotion for a star-studded blockbuster like this one.
Throw in the fact that most of the film's cast have been less than fully available to do other forms of press for the movie due to concerns about possibly difficult questions about Miller's involvement, and you have a perfect storm of promotional hurdles that the movie seems to be struggling to get through.
Word of mouth for The Flash hasn't helped it
Deadline also points out another, possibly more primary reason for the disappointing box office performance of "The Flash," which is that many moviegoers simply don't seem to think it's very good. It got a middling B CinemaScore, and even though it's currently jogging pretty with a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 85%, there's also been a fair amount of negative buzz about iffy CGI in "The Flash," with some saying it's just as bad as the infamous audio mix of "Across the Spider-Verse."
There's also the nostalgia factor, which resulted in a promotional campaign for "The Flash" that featured Michael Keaton's return to the cape and cowl of Batman almost as prominently as the titular speedster (Ezra Miller) himself. This marketing strategy might have muddied the waters and failed to captivate general audiences who could still see The Flash as a mid-tier superhero (despite his significance within DC Comics). And it appears that the film's plethora of Easter eggs and references to DC stars past and present haven't set audiences alight either.