There was dismay in the DCU community when Shazam! Fury of the Gods sank without a trace at the box office, to go down as one of the biggest superhero bombs of the modern era. Unfortunately, things could be about to go from bad to worse, with The Flash already in real danger of going down in the history books as one of the heftiest flops of all-time.
It seems like a million years ago that Andy Muschietti’s tortured comic book adaptation was being projected to earn somewhere close to $100 million in its domestic opening weekend, but it’s only been a month. Even as recently as last week, the Scarlet Speedster was eying at least $70 million, only to fall drastically short of that number in disastrous fashion.
Based on a global tally of $130 million through its first few days on the big screen, international audiences won’t be able to save The Flash, either, but how bad could it really get? Well, if you take the estimated production budget of $200 million at face value and then factor in the additional marketing and distribution costs, then things are not looking great for Ezra Miller’s starring turn.
Not to dredge up Zack Snyder again, but consider that Man of Steel cost roughly $225 million to produce, brought in $668 million in ticket sales, and still only posted a net profit of jut under $43 million. Even the first Shazam! ended up in the black to the tune of $74 million by the time it left multiplexes, and it cost less than half of what The Flash did, and the latter will be lucky if it earns half as much as the DCU’s opening chapter.
Should the saga’s latest installment come in at the low end of current tracking and end up hovering around $300 million in total box office by the end of its run, then we’re genuinely talking about losses that could potentially run into the hundreds of millions, which is at least going to see it secure a long-lasting legacy, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
Published: Jun 20, 2023 02:25 am