‘The Flash’s box office crash redefines irony as poetic justice for a cruelly wronged DC warrior

Apparently, Barry Allen isn’t the fastest man alive as The Flash has failed to outrun the fate of becoming DC’s newest box office bomb. Between Ezra Miller’s controversial history, all the delays it faced, and bombshells confirming exactly how James Gunn tampered with the film’s script – this outcome is hardly a surprise. Well, it is one more thing — retribution for a DC superhero who didn’t even receive a backward glance as the cinematic universe got caught up with its new playthings. 

Whether it is critical reactions or box office performance, The Flash is not faring well at all as its debut earnings are less than what Black Adam — and even universally-established duds like 2003’s Hulk — managed to bag when they hit theaters. While the Ezra Miller starrer still has a long way to go, it won’t be a bad idea to believe speculations that it won’t be earning back all the big bucks that went into making sure that it hits theaters. 

So, a movie that was doomed from the beginning, negatively affected DC’s reputation, and actually triggered demands from fans to be shelved was given every possible (not useful) effort to make sure it sees the light of day. Funny, considering Batgirl was canceled at the last minute because DC bosses were worried it was so bad that it would mess up the franchise’s image upon its release. 

Since Batgirl was supposed to be based on and set after The Flash’s events, canceling the latter and keeping the former wouldn’t have made sense. But what supporters of Batgirl are finding ironic is the fact that since Batgirl’s cancelation, three DC films have been released — Black Adam, Shazam 2, and The Flash — and neither of them has qualified as a successful venture in terms of box office or critical reviews. It seems safe to say they did the opposite of redeeming DC’s cinematic endeavors. 

It was also reported that another reason why Batgirl was canned was because Warner Bros. was focusing on cost-cutting measures and didn’t want to waste money on a film that wasn’t big enough for a mega theatrical release but was too small in scale and thus wouldn’t “make economic sense” if it was released on streaming. 

Well, The Flash still has weeks to win the box office and maybe, just maybe, it will manage to phase through every other disappointing milestone in its way.