The Flash Leak That Just Let Over 1M People See It For Free

It goes without saying "The Flash" has had a rough go at it since it came out on June 16. After months of it being hyped as the second coming of superhero movies, the consensus upon release was ... less than glowing. It received mixed reviews from critics and general audiences, with people's mileage from the numerous cameos varying significantly. "The Flash" has also had trouble at the box office, falling far short of expectations. And to add further trouble to the woes of Warner Bros., someone leaked the entire movie to Twitter on June 25, where 1.7 million people saw at least part of it.

Twitter user @BriYoshFR uploaded the full film. They were suspended for the action, but "The Flash" stayed on the platform in its entirety for eight hours before finally being taken down. For a movie that's struggled as much as "The Flash," the leak seems like another nail in the coffin. Many surprises and cameos leaked well before the film's release due to numerous preview screenings, which likely diminished people's incentive to see the movie as soon as possible. It's far from the only factor at play as to why people haven't seen the film in theaters, but the leak isn't helping things at this point. 

While "The Flash" leaking on Twitter sounds bad, it may be overblown. The video racked up 1.7 million views; if every single one of those people purchased a $15 movie ticket, that means "The Flash" missed out on $25.5 million extra at the box office. Ultimately, that's a drop in the bucket to what the movie needs to make to turn a profit at this point. 

It's also worth pointing out that Twitter has lax standards when it comes to what counts as a view. According to Twitter Analytics, a user has to watch a video for at least two seconds with at least 50% of the video player in-view for it to count as a view. That means someone scrolling on their feed and only watching the Warner Bros. logo before scrolling away would count as a view. There's a chance some people watched the movie on Twitter who had no intention of paying for it either way. Maybe some just wanted to see those cameos to determine if they're really all that impressive. 

This isn't the first time this has happened. Someone uploaded all of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" to Twitter earlier in 2023, which received 9 million views before being taken down. The leak obviously didn't hurt that film's prospects, as it grossed well over $1 billion at the box office. "The Flash" just can't catch a break, as it's well on its way to being a meme-worthy bomb on the same level as "Morbius."