With the exception of profitable endeavors such as “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” “Talk to Me” and “Sound of Freedom,” it’s been a summer movie season of bombs.
Plenty of films will be losing lots of dough this season — I’m counting “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning,” “Haunted Mansion,” and “The Little Mermaid.” It’s come to the point where “Elemental” just breaking even has become its own definition of a “success” story.
All of this to say that Andy Muschietti’s “The Flash” officially ended its box-office run yesterday. The final tally is $268 million worldwide. Ouch. Will we ever again see Ezra Miller on-screen?
The ‘Flash’ budget is said to have been around $220 million. So, Warner Bros is looking at some major losses here. The marketing campaign was $150 million. Add it all up and it probably stands to lose over $100 million.
That number is the best case scenario for Muschietti’s film which was plagued by delays, reshoots and star Ezra Miller’s criminal activity. The lukewarm reviews sealed the deal for the movie which is now hoping to bank additional profits via its August 25th VOD release.
Add this to Warner’s ‘Shazam 2’ losses, estimated at around $150 million, not to mention the just-released “Blue Beetle” likely not breaking even, and Warner CEO David Zaslav might be hitting the panic button on his upcoming DCEU plans.
Zaslav must be counting his lucky stars that “Barbie” basically saved the summer for Warner Bros. It’s made over $1.2 billion worldwide. It's too bad that the $205 million-costing “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” exists, set for a December release, and is filled with toxic word of mouth.
A lesson could be found somewhere in this whole mess. The notion that “superhero fatigue” doesn’t exist is nonsense. It does, the proof is in the pudding — there might still be some Marvel movies that still make money in 2023 (‘Guardians 3’) but they have become very far and few.