The Flash Speeds Into Sluggish $139 Million Debut at the Global Box Office

The Flash has sped into a sluggish $139 million (about Rs. 1,140 crore) opening at the global box office just shy of Black Adam’s opening weekend, which stood at $140 million (about Rs. 1,148 crore). Marking the reset point that ushers in James Gunn’s revamped DC Universe, the film is reportedly performing worse than projections, earning merely $64 million (about Rs. 525 crore) from within the US and Canada. From everywhere else in the world, the film collected $75 million (about Rs. 615 crore), below the predicted $85–$95 million margin.

Several factors might have played into this, mainly surrounding its lead Ezra Miller who was largely barred from appearing in The Flash’s publicity campaigns, following his run-ins with the law in 2022. Around that time, Warner Bros. concocted three release scenarios for the film, with the studio even considering scrapping the $200 million (about Rs. 1,639 crore) movie if the actor refused to seek help or cooperate. Reshooting the same film with a different actor would’ve also been impossible, since there are two versions of Barry Allen in the film, with his face present in almost every scene. Therefore, much of the marketing was done with Sasha Calle, who plays Supergirl in The Flash.

Meanwhile, its director Andy Mushietti confirmed that Miller will continue playing the Scarlet Speedster, as long as he is involved in the superhero franchise. In case a sequel is greenlit, he wants Miller back, saying: “I don’t think there’s anyone that can play that character as well as they did. The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it,” in an interview. Even ignoring that The Flash does not have a star of Dwayne Johnson’s stature for marketing purposes (Black Adam), the film had one thing in common with other recently successful films — multiverse-hopping shenanigans.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the first thing that comes to mind, lifting the Oscar award earlier this year, for Best Picture. From the superhero realm, we’ve seen back-to-back wins from Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and more recently, Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse.

With the aforementioned figures, the DC Extended Universe continues to underperform. As per Deadline, China took the top spot, earning The Flash an estimated $13.8 million (about Rs. 113 crore), which is still lower than the expected traffic. Following next is Mexico with $9.4 million (about Rs. 77 crore), while the UK added another $5.3 million (about Rs. 43 crore) to the pot. Korea came in fourth, making $3.8 million (about Rs. 31 crore), closely followed by Brazil with $3.5 million (about Rs. 29 crore). The film has a fairly clear runway until the end of June, which brings Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to theatres.

Hopefully, Gunn’s revamped DC Universe finds the right footing and propels the franchise back into profit. Just last week, he hired The Flash’s director Muschietti to direct the new Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold, which brings Damian Wayne/ Robin into the mix.

The Flash is now showing in theatres worldwide.