There are quite a few people out there who believe Ezra Miller‘s off-camera antics have contributed to The Flash cratering at the box office in alarmingly rapid time for a $200 million blockbuster, but one box office pundit isn’t buying it for a second, and even referred to the actor by the wrong pronouns while doing so.
Whether it was intentional or not, the unnamed box office analyst who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter didn’t believe that the DCU’s longtime Barry Allen – who uses they/them pronouns – had any impact whatsoever on the vastly expensive comic book adaptation being greeted with nothing but apathy from the general public.
“No one would care if Miller promoted the picture; he isn’t a movie star and has no following.”
It’s admittedly very unusual for the top-billed star in any high-profile picture to be almost completely absent from the marketing – with Miller making just one solitary appearance at The Flash‘s red carpet premiere – but let’s not overlook the fact that Michael Keaton wasn’t exactly out there praising his Batman comeback from the rooftops, either, with Supergirl debutant Sasha Calle shouldering most of the workload in that department.
It’s easy to say that Miller’s headline-grabbing misdeeds had generated the wrong sort of publicity – which they very much did – but there are a number of reasons why The Flash has sunk so quickly. The incoming DCU reboot rendered it largely obsolete from the outset, the early buzz was dispelled in short order by mediocre reactions from critics and crowds, and it feels like a movie that went through countless key creatives, extensive reshoots, and multiple endings, making it difficult to point the blame squarely at the lead say that it’s their fault alone.
