It doesn’t matter which way you want to cut it; The Flash is one of the biggest box office bombs in the history of cinema, hardly a great return for a movie everyone was repeatedly told was one of the greatest comic book adaptations of all-time.
The hyperbole would have been fine if it was even remotely justified, but in amongst the garish CGI and mediocre execution, it almost felt as though the joke was on us for buying it. Of course, the egg ended up all over Warner Bros.’ face instead when hardly anybody paid a ticket to see it on the big screen relative to the studio’s investment, something that even those manning the picket lines during the dual-pronged strikes have been quick to point out.
And yet, it turns out The Flash may have cost even more than the $200 million budget that was initially being floated. Like, a lot more. Buried in a story from The Hollywood Reporter on the hits and misses to have defined the summer season, it’s claimed that the Scarlet Speedster’s solo debut actually set WB back by $300 million, an entire third higher than initially believed.
To be fair, it doesn’t sound far-fetched when you consider that a decade in development – during which period countless writers and director came and went – would have been slowly building up the expense, never mind the all-out marketing campaign that proved to be for nothing when the film couldn’t even come close to $300 million in worldwide ticket sales.
The Flash was already about as costly as Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle combined, and if that additional $100 million really is part of the bottom line, then DC’s dire year just got even worse.
