The Flash Box Office Thread

[Invader Joker]

Safe to say WB will NOT be doing free fan screenings in the future. Premiere and embargo lifting only a few days before the actual release is the way to go. No matter how good they think the product is.

The fan-screenings are at the very bottom of the barrel of reasons as to why this film is flopping. If not for the fan screenings it'd have done what? An extra 500K in its opening weekend? It still would've dropped as bad on its second weekend.

 

[DCnightwing23]

How could this have happened?! It got beaten by a romantic comedy in its second weekend!

To be fair.. that rom-com was a good time.

 

[samsnee]

Is this even going to break $100M domestic?

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Is this even going to break $100M domestic?

I think so but not by much. 110-115 seems to be the conventional wisdom at the moment. It’s currently $16 million ahead of Independence Day 2, which finished at 102 so I think it makes it even if its dailies are starting to fall behind ID2’s.

Movie Comparison: The Flash (2023) vs. Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

 

[Blade Hoarder]

Is it really that baffling?
Like sure i didnt expect it to get this low, but still...you could see this coming.

Last but not least because of the deranged hate campaign that was running days before release on Twitter where you would have thought they had CGI Christopher Reeves punching kittens in it.
The people were acting like this movie was the worst insult to anything ever made and managed to convince a ton of people of it.

The amount of people who said they watched the movie and hated it, is insane seeing how this doenst translate at all to the Box Office.
A lot watched either just an awful camrip or just clips of it.

The Ezra Miller thing hurt the movie too, that shouldnt come as a surprise.

Then you got the whole Reboot thing which caused many to go: Why should we watch this when they reboot all.

What i dont get is the huge drop considering word of mouth turned out far better.
I saw many people who werent convinced of the movie, be positive surprised once they watched it.
So that it dropped this hard, that baffles me a bit.
But in general, that it wouldnt turn out well...shouldnt come out as a surprise.
It had everything going against it.

captain marvel had a targeted hate campaign prior to release. It still made a billion dollars.

online hate doesn’t translate to real life views. Flash would’ve flopped like a fish outta water no matter what people “online” said.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

This disaster goes beyond just the lack of buzz. That Cinemascore sticks out like a sore thumb. Even the few people that did see it didn't particularly like it. It is clear between that and the huge drop, there were issues with this film itself beyond the larger DCEU problems, resulting in poor word of mouth.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Last week, it was buy 3 tix, get 1 free.

This weekend, now buy 1 get 1.

 

[Silver Surfer]

The Flash was the perfect residue of controversy and issues.

- Massive development issues and delays - How many directors and release dates has this movie gone through?

- Terrible marketing - Couldn't even put the lead actor out for interviews.

- Toxic DC Brand - This what the 5th flop in a row?

- Ezra's legal issue - As stated above, WB couldn't even put him up for press interviews.

- Terrible word of mouth - A B cinemascore.

- Terrible and over used CGI - That costume and look is worse than GL 2011.

Put it all together and you have an All-Time Boxoffice disaster.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The Flash was the perfect residue of controversy and issues.

- Massive development issues and delays - How many directors and release dates has this movie gone through?

- Terrible marketing - Couldn't even put the lead actor out for interviews.

- Toxic DC Brand - This what the 5th flop in a row?

- Ezra's legal issue - As stated above, WB couldn't even put him up for press interviews.

- Terrible word of mouth - A B cinemascore.

- Terrible and over used CGI - That costume and look is worse than GL 2011.

Put it all together and you have an All-Time Boxoffice disaster.

Yeah, it was a lot of things. Take Miller's legal issues, for example. Unlike some others here, I do think it had an effect. That Male/Female ratio was ridiculously one-sided, and that was a likely cause. It probably wasn't the primary problem, and it would have been a bomb regardless, but all of these things start to add up to go from flop to all-time disaster territory. The difference between a car crash and a 75 car pileup.

 

[Lily Adler]

Last week, it was buy 3 tix, get 1 free.

This weekend, now buy 1 get 1.

 

[Spider-Fan]

This disaster goes beyond just the lack of buzz. That Cinemascore sticks out like a sore thumb. Even the few people that did see it didn't particularly like it. It is clear between that and the huge drop, there were issues with this film itself beyond the larger DCEU problems, resulting in poor word of mouth.

Exactly. Which really shows with a 72% weekend drop. This isn't getting recommended by people

 

[samsnee]

Last week, it was buy 3 tix, get 1 free.

This weekend, now buy 1 get 1.

Next week: please just come and let us give you a ticket for free and say you liked it!

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Next week: please just come and let us give you a ticket for free and say you liked it!

The week after that: we will actually pay YOU to come see our movie!

 

[Silver Surfer]

It's the old Charles Barkley joke:

"I left 2 Knicks tickets for some friends at the hotel desk, I came back the next day and found 4"

 

[Mani-Man]

The Flash was the perfect residue of controversy and issues.

- Massive development issues and delays - How many directors and release dates has this movie gone through?

- Terrible marketing - Couldn't even put the lead actor out for interviews.

- Toxic DC Brand - This what the 5th flop in a row?

- Ezra's legal issue - As stated above, WB couldn't even put him up for press interviews.

- Terrible word of mouth - A B cinemascore.

- Terrible and over used CGI - That costume and look is worse than GL 2011.

Put it all together and you have an All-Time Boxoffice disaster.

I agree on all but the bolded parts because i see the difference left and right.
The amount of people i saw liking the movie and praising it, is literally driving me insane.
Even people that did nothing but smear the DC movies liked it.

Its so insane, some people claim there is terrible word of mouth etc, others i see talk about how its almost annoyingly positive what they see people say.

The CGI...eh im not one who is really bothered by that to be honest.
Sure, 200+ Million productions should have top notch CGI imo, but outside of the Cameos and the final act, i felt the CGI was absolutely fine and definitly not the worst DC CGI we have seen.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Its so insane, some people claim there is terrible word of mouth etc, others i see talk about how its almost annoyingly positive what they see people say.

The Cinemascore and big second weekend drop are actual evidence we can point to that says it had poor word of mouth, regardless of what you may have heard personally from friends or on social media.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

Its so insane, some people claim there is terrible word of mouth etc

It’s no longer a claim, it’s an observable truth. A movie doesn’t drop over 70% over an already terrible debut weekend if WOM was good.

 

[Detective Conan]

The amount of people i saw liking the movie and praising it, is literally driving me insane.
Even people that did nothing but smear the DC movies liked it.

Its so insane, some people claim there is terrible word of mouth etc, others i see talk about how its almost annoyingly positive what they see people say

No offense…but its actually so insane that you’re ignoring the objective data that we have that does in fact show the movie does have terrible word-of-mouth like it’s middling Cinemascore and it’s steep drop-offs in favor for going off mere anecdotal evidence, and erroneously framing pointing out this fact as some misleading claim made by some.

 

[Frodo]

While it may be hard to hear ,or accept , from some people in fandom, the film simply isn't connecting with audiences .

There was a lot of spin going into this release, and a perception(to an extent in a lot of fandom) that the film was , without question, "good".

That campaign from the studio ,and the gushing from geek pundits , may have raised the expectations of fandom ,but it ultimately did nothing to raise the interest or praise of the GA.

 

[Another_Fool]

It's the old Charles Barkley joke:

"I left 2 Knicks tickets for some friends at the hotel desk, I came back the next day and found 4"

As a Knick fan, I love this joke.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Looks like it will just edge out No Hard Feelings for third place…


OS:

 

[samsnee]

Looks like it will just edge out No Hard Feelings for third place…


OS:

It made its budget back! The rest is gravy from here! /s

 

[Mani-Man]

No offense…but its actually so insane that you’re ignoring the objective data that we have that does in fact show the movie does have terrible word-of-mouth like it’s middling Cinemascore and it’s steep drop-offs in favor for going off mere anecdotal evidence, and erroneously framing pointing out this fact as some misleading claim made by some.

Where Do i ignore it?
I dont.
Im just saying what i See, which is simply confusing me because cinemascore and Box Office tell a Different Story from what im seeing.

Like i almost get the feeling that a lot of the positive opinions people have and i see, is out of pity or so, because cinemascore, Box Office etc Tell a Different Story.

 

[RiXi]

One of the things I disliked the most about the marketing was how the company and the ones involved (WB executives, Andy, even Gunn gets involved in this) seemed to treat the audience as stupid.

The audience decides if a movie is "what the world needs right now", we don't need big names like Tom Cruise and Stephen King to make that decision for us (one has to wonder how much did they get paid to say that, cause now their credibility is basically non existing).

And it's understandable that, now being in charge of the studio, James Gunn tried to say something positive about it to help them out. But there's a huge difference between saying "I like this movie, go check it out" and saying "This is literally the best comic book movie ever". It's even pointless, once the audience sees it it's very obvious it isn't. It's even kind of insulting.

Now, are they gonna have the same strategy for Aquaman TLK? Cause it's looking to be in similar issues. For a movie that did incredibly well, there's really not a lot of excitement showing for the sequel. It's a continuation of a DCEU that clearly has lost its audience, and it as well has a cast member involved in polemics and rejected by the public. Saying "people will watch it because at least they like the character of Aquaman and Jason Momoa" it's like expecting The Flash was gonna do well because people love Batman and Keaton/Affleck.

I agree with some comments made before. They should release Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2 in Max and let DC have a 2 year break before coming back fresh with Superman from a new angle.

 

[Hurm...]

I agree with some comments made before. They should release Blue Beetle and Aquaman 2 in Max and let DC have a 2 year break before coming back fresh with Superman from a new angle.

Yep, I'm on the same page as you and others with this sentiment. Blue Beetle already looks like a DTV project so it's a natural transition to Max anyway. By releasing that and Aquaman to theatres, it will do even more harm to future DC projects. General audiences won't be able to recognize that they're separate from the new cinematic universe that's being established.