"The Flash" Opens to a Disappointing $55M Debut

[JamesG]

Weekend Box Office Results: The Flash and Elemental Secure Disappointing Debuts
by Erik Childress
June 18, 2023


The DC Universe had their greatest success in 2018 with James Wan’s Aquaman. The sequel to which will be the final chapter before James Gunn gets his hands on rebooting nearly everything.

Since 2018 (both pre- and post-pandemic) DC’s numbers have fallen on hard times. Shazam!, though a financial success, was the lowest-grossing film of the lot in 2019. Birds of Prey was on its last legs even before theaters were shut down in 2020. Wonder Woman 1984 became the guinea pig of the HBO MAX streaming experiment pre-vaccine.

And though they tried to desperately convince everyone that Black Adam was a success, it most assuredly was not. This weekend The Flash gets its chance to shine with the nostalgia floodlights on full display, but audiences were not entirely buying.



When the combined Thursday and Friday grosses from The Flash came out to $24.5 million, you could hear the alarm bells go off.

Higher than Shazam’s $20.3 million but lower than Black Adam’s $26.6 million, that total immediately sent eyeballs looking at the final grosses, and now they likely want to look away from them.




The Flash grossed $55.1 million over the weekend. Even its estimated $64 million through the holiday Monday is less than what Black Adam started with last October, and that film only did 2.5 times its opening.

The Flash’s budget is reported to land somewhere around $200-220 million; no live-action film since 2011 to open in June below $75 million went on to gross $220 million.








If The Flash failed to win the weekend it likely would have found itself here. Instead, it is the other $200 million production occupying the No. 2 spot in more ways than one.

Disney and Pixar’s Elemental opened to just $29.5 million, which is the lowest in the animation company’s history since A Bug’s Life, just its second feature, opened to $33.5 million in November 1998. (Toy Story opened to $29.1 million in 1995.)



Just before the pandemic began, Onward started with $39.11 million. Even Elemental director Peter Sohn’s debut The Good Dinosaur, Pixar’s lowest-grossing pre-pandemic film ($123.1 million), opened to $39.15 million.

That was one of just three financial failures for Pixar, including Cars 3 and last year’s mega-bomb Lightyear, which started with $50.5 million before crashing with just $118.3 million domestic and $226 million worldwide. Elemental is now praying it can make as much, as its international total is at a mere $44.5 million right now.








On the flipside, the biggest success of the summer to date is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The film’s $27.8 million is the ninth-best third weekend ever for films opening in June, and its total of $280.4 million is the 11th-best total after 17 days of release for this month.

That is just behind Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 ($284.6 million), and that film’s third weekend was only $24.7 million.



Across the Spider-Verse is on a pace to finish somewhere between $380-$410 million, eventually passing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (finishing the weekend with over $344 million) to become the biggest film of the summer and the odds-on favorite now to keep that title.

Worldwide, it has grossed over $489 million.









Speaking of second weekends in the low 20s, that’s where Transformers: Rise of the Beasts wished it could be, as its estimate is coming in at just $20 million, a 67% drop.

Its numbers fell behind Spider-Verse all week and now in fourth place, it has just barely gotten itself over $100 million. That is just $11 million ahead of The Last Knight, signaling that Beasts is headed towards a finish of under $150 million domestic.

Worldwide, the film is only at $250 million.








Fast X is also on its last domestic legs with $2.4 million this weekend, bringing its total to $142 million domestic and $676 million international.

It's continuing to slot it as one of the biggest bombs of all time in relation to its mega-budget of $340 million.









The Little Mermaid grossed $11.6 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to just under $254 million. That has it closely aligned with Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which had $250.7 million after 24 days of release and a $14 million fourth weekend. Clones just got itself over the milestone with $302 million.

That is a far cry below the pace Mermaid had been setting with the $355 million-grossing Aladdin, which had $264 million after a $17.3 million fourth frame.

Mermaid is headed for over half a billion worldwide, but with only $185 million of that coming from the international side, this is starting to look like a pretty big loser for Disney.








Lionsgate’s release of The Blackening netted $6 million in its opening; Tim Story’s comic horror film only cost $5 million.

The Indian epic Adipurush hit the top 10 with $2.5 million over the weekend.

Celine Song’s Past Lives expanded into 85 theaters this weekend and grossed $760,000. It’s total now stands at $1.9 million as it prepares to go wide next week on the same weekend that Wes Anderson’s latest does.








Asteroid City opened in just six theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend and grossed an impressive $790,000.

That is the best launch ever for a film in six theaters, ahead of American Hustle ($740,455), Blue Jasmine ($612,064), Midnight in Paris ($599,003), and The Whale ($332,152).

The $120,000 per-theater average is also the best of 2023, besting Beau Is Afraid’s $80,099. It is also the best PTA since 2019 when Parasite opened to a $131,072 average in just three theaters. If the estimate holds, Asteroid City’s PTA will be roughly $131,666.

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com...inting-debuts/








June 16-18, 2023: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. The Flash $55,100,000
2. Elemental $29,500,000
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse $27,800,000 / $27,800,000
4. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts $20,000,000 / $100,622,183
5. The Little Mermaid $11,600,000 / $253,559,129
6. The Blackening $6,000,000
7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 $5,000,000 / $344,360,355
8. The Boogeyman $3,800,000 / $32,767,747
9. Fast X $2,020,000 / $142,403,305
10. Asteroid City $790,000

[TMC]

15 Biggest Factors In The Flash's Historic Box Office Bomb

What's the cause of DC's latest box office struggles? The Flash's failure comes from Ezra Miller, bad CGI, franchise confusion and much, much more.

Why The Flash Bombed At The Box Office

"The Flash" is finally out in theaters across the globe. However, it's not looking too hot at the box-office, and fans may want to know why.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

15 Biggest Factors In The Flash's Historic Box Office Bomb

What's the cause of DC's latest box office struggles? The Flash's failure comes from Ezra Miller, bad CGI, franchise confusion and much, much more.

Why The Flash Bombed At The Box Office

"The Flash" is finally out in theaters across the globe. However, it's not looking too hot at the box-office, and fans may want to know why.

WHY DID THE FLASH BOMB AT THE BOX OFFICE? | Double Toasted - Today at Double Toasted we have have a discussion on The Flash box office and why it was lower than expected. We also discuss the directors comments on the visual effects. What do you think of the poor box office performance?

With an 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, you'd think "The Flash" would be killing at the box office. Unfortunately, this isn't the case, and we're here to tell you why.

[TMC]

Ezra Miller Is playing the Flash. Ezra is a criminal who hurts people and abuses his fans. Let's go over how the Flash is the opposite of him in every way.

There's a solid movie buried in DC's The Flash somewhere, but that's not what we ended up with.

In this video essay, we break down why the new DCEU film, The Flash, is everything wrong with Hollywood. Starring Ezra Miller, The Flash tells an incredibly messy story with a mix of Nostalgia, cameos, tonal whiplash, and a list of other faults. Although it has moments of greatness, it ultimately is a lesson on how to not make a nostalgia-bait superhero movie. The return of Michael Keaton's Batman wasn't enough to save this one.

Time Stamps

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:32 - Sponsor
• 2:54 - Part 1
• 9:17 - Part 2
• 13:57 - Part 3
• 15:43 - Summary

The Flash cost 220 million dollars to make, and with prints and advertising on top of that, really cost more than 300 million dollars. Studios take about 60% on average of domestic box office takings, about 20 to 40% internationally, which means that The Flash will have to make four to six hundred million dollars for the studio to break even. Right now it's made about 210 million dollars- so what went wrong? And don't just say it was s***. There's lots of stuff that's s*** that makes loads of money. Avatar 2, Monsanto. So let's get stuck in.

The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck, was slated to be the biggest DC movie of the year. Now its shaping up to be the biggest flop.

The Flash is a hot mess that can't be saved by Michael Keaton's Batman. Pure unadulterated nostalgia bait.

Chapters:

• Opening 00:00
• WB is Dumb 00:20
• The Ballad of Ezra Miller 02:28
• Review 04:35
• Spoilers 11:51
• End 13:39

Woof. Where do I even begin?

• 0:00-4:27 General Thoughts
• 4:28-7:08 Spoilers/Rant
• 7:09-7:57 Final Thoughts

I (a relatively new DC viewer) talk about my experience with the new Flash movie.

In this movie review, I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of The Flash, exploring its ambitious storytelling, memorable characters, and crazy action sequences.

Yeah I said it. It’s mediocre.