If it feels like the box office bad news for The Flash keeps coming on a daily basis, it’s because that’s precisely what’s happening, with the Scarlet Speedster’s solo debut continuing to plummet downwards at a catastrophic rate.
Having already dropped off the top of the domestic rankings after less than a week in release, Andy Muschietti’s comic book adaptation finished its first seven days a mere million dollars or so ahead of the infamous Green Lantern, but that comes with an asterisk when Ryan Reynolds’ widely-reviled DC blockbuster is miles ahead in terms of ticket sales when you take inflation into account.
Just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, The Flash will be very lucky if it doesn’t set an unwanted all-time record for the entire superhero genre in its sophomore frame. The latest projections have the cursed production on course for a three-day tally of around $14 million, which ensures it’s going to handily defeat the The Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods to secure the DCU’s worst-ever week-to-week decline.
Rubbing salt into a wound that’s so gaping it’s borderline gangrenous, should Ezra Miller’s headline outing as the title hero fall further than 74 percent – which there’s every chance it’s going to do – then it will officially overtake Morbius as having endured the largest second-weekend fall in the entire history of superhero cinema.
At this point, The Flash needs a miracle to avoid complete and utter disaster on a Hall of Fame scale, but we don’t have much confidence that it will.