The Flash director Andy Muschietti has candidly broken down why he believes the DC film was a major box office flop.
Upon its release in 2023, the film, starring controversial figure Ezra Miller, became one of the worst-performing films in superhero history alongside Sony’s recent Marvel spin-off, Kraven the Hunter.
The long-gestating project suffered years of delay after being teed up as part of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which is in the process of being revamped by Peter Safran and James Gunn, whose Superman will be released later this year.
When it was finally unleashed on the world, it amassed global takings of $271.4m (£224m) from a budget that reportedly reached highs of $220m (£181.6m). However, it’s believed that the budget would have ballooned due to the film’s production hell.
Muschietti ended up directing The Flash after many other filmmakers stepped away and the director, whose credits include horror film Mama and the It films, is sharing his thoughts on why the film tanked so much at the box office.
While he acknowledged that the film’s success was tainted by the controversy surrounding its lead star as well as superhero fatigue, which has also hit the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in recent years, Muschietti thinks the film was doomed as not enough people cared.
“The Flash failed, among all the other reasons because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants – it failed at that,” he told Portuguese station Radio TU, via CinemaBlend.
Musichietti is referring to the four demographic groups that a studio wants a film to appeal to: male, female, over 25 and under 25.
He continued: “When you spend $200m making a movie, Warner Bros wants to bring even your grandmother to the theatres. And I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about The Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film, I’ve learned.”
The Flash’s release was jeopardised by lead star Miller’s various altercations, from appearing to choke a woman at a bar in Iceland to two arrests in Hawaii.
The actor broke their silence about “going through an intense period of crisis” in an August 2022 statement, saying they are “suffering complex mental health issues”.
They said: “I want to apologise to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behaviour. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life.”
