The Thursday numbers are in and “The Flash” isn’t doing well, at all. What we are looking at here is a sub $60 million opening.
Andy Muschietti’s DCEU film made around $9.2 million in Thursday previews. That’s bad. In comparison, ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ made double that
WB must be in a full blown panic mode right now. Even worse, The Wrap is reporting the budget to be around $220 million. Going by the 2.5x rule, “The Flash” would have to make $550 million worldwide to break even, maybe more.
So far, internationally, “The Flash” has also had a very soft landing, especially in Europe and Korea. It’ll finish in the top spot in most of the major markets, but, again, it’s underperforming and not really slaying.
This will all lead to this December’s ‘Aquaman 2’ being the final nail in the coffin for Warner Bros’ “Snyder-Verse.” James Gunn has a lot of work ahead of him and it’s not going to be smooth sailing either.
What we are seeing this summer are studio heads watching their biggest franchises bomb hard, while mid-budget films, especially critically acclaimed indies, somehow over-performing. Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” opened in just 6 theaters yesterday, but managed to make $750k!
I’ll be tackling the disastrous Thursday performance of Pixar’s “Elemental” later today.
The good news is that Cuarón is only writing “Ascension,” meaning he won’t be tied up with directing duties and should still have room in his schedule for a long-awaited return to cinema.