Why We Shouldn’t Be Surprised ‘The Flash’ Underperformed at the Box Office

After a disappointing showing at the box office, there's been speculation as to why The Flash — which came with high-profile supporters and a fair amount of buzz — failed to draw big audiences. But could the answer be as simple as no one really cared that much in the first place?

When The Flash was initially green-lit almost a decade ago, Zack Snyder's building of the DC Extended Universe was just beginning, having gotten off to a relatively promising start with 2013's Man of Steel. But as other heroes like Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman enjoyed their own solo debuts and team ups in the following years, Ezra Miller's Flash vehicle got slowed down in development hell, as writers, directors and release dates routinely came and went.

By the time The Flash finally arrived, its biggest villain wasn't a recycled General Zod (Michael Shannon), but rather fatigue — and a lot of it. Superhero fatigue, Snyderverse fatigue, dead superhero parent fatigue, and even Flash fatigue, with the CW's Flash series wrapping after a 9-season, 184-episode run just weeks before the film opened.

All things considered, Warner Bros. might've been lucky to get a $55 million opening weekend out of a movie that reportedly cost $200 million — and that's without factoring in the pricey ad campaign. (Other recent debut comparisons include Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at $106 million, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 at $118 million, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at $181 million. Even Black Adam managed $67 million.)

New DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn and the previous regime tried mightily to generate interest in The Flash, touting the return of beloved Batman star Michael Keaton and praising Miller's performance. Gunn declared it "one of the greatest superhero movies ever made", while Discovery CEO David Zaslav called it "the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen.” Even Tom Cruise loved it, reportedly calling director Andy Muschietti directly to tell him that The Flash is "everything you want in a movie." Early box office estimates seemed to suggest the praise was paying off, with some trackers hinting at a whopping $140 million opening weekend.

Having fallen well short of those early estimates, some experts are attributing The Flash's poor performance to the controversy surrounding Miller, who has been involved in a number of legal and personal incidents over the past couple of years. Outside of an appearance at the film's premiere, Miller did not do press for the film, likely due to those issues. And with the writers' strike shutting down late-night talk shows, other Flash stars had limited opportunities to pick up the slack.

Fifteen years into the modern superhero film era, it's no longer enough for Marvel or DC to simply put out another installment every few months and expect audiences to show up. Yes, quality matters, but so does investment: Avengers: Endgame had a major emotional impact on audiences because it was the culmination of a decade of buildup. Fans weren't told why they should care; they were shown why through successful solo outings and strategic, carefully-woven crossovers.

In The Flash, there's no earned reason to cheer when Wonder Woman, Batman and Barry Allen share the screen together. In fact, after seven years of playing the part, it's difficult to recall a memorable moment from Miller's tenure as the Flash. Although, in defense of Miller (who uses they/them pronouns), they were dealt a tough deck as the sole comedic element in these films, tasked with lightening the moody darkness that is both Justice Leagues.

Miller debuted his Flash in Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), in what officially marked the expansion of what is known as the Snyderverse, and eventually included hit origin offshoots for Gadot's Wonder Woman and Momoa's Aquaman. But the empire showed cracks with the troubled Justice League, and the costly loss became two-fold with a special director's cut, Zack Snyder's Justice League. Snyder's influence over DC came to an end when Warner Bros. Discovery chief tabbed Gunn (the filmmaker behind Guardians of the Galaxy) and Peter Safran as the new heads of DC Studios late last year.

With the studio looking to start fresh, The Flash's performance could be a blessing in disguise, allowing Gunn to move on without the residual specter of the Synderverse . August's Blue Beetle preceded Gunn's takeover, but he's already claiming that as part of his new reign, while next up on the docket, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, will look to ride on the first film's coattails (and Momoa's mesmerizing Fast X turn) and hope to avoid the same fate as The Flash.