Despite winning the weekend box office clash, the superhero film “The Flash,” featuring Ezra Miller, did not impress, pulling in $55 million in its opening weekend. Meanwhile, Pixar’s “Elemental” fared even worse, managing a meagre $29.5 million.
These two fresh releases, previously tipped to set the summer blockbuster season ablaze, were total letdowns. “The Flash” earned an underwhelming $55 million, while “Elemental” scraped a mere $29.5 million on their opening weekends. Both movies fell significantly short of their modest expectations, and with production and marketing costs surpassing $300 million combined, their underperformance at the box office is a significant disappointment.
According to James Gunn, newly appointed co-chief of DC Studios, Warner Bros. had poured significant effort into promoting “The Flash” as a pinnacle of superhero cinema. Directed by Andy Muschietti, the film sees Miller’s character, Barry Allen (The Flash), travel back to stop his mother’s murder, accidentally triggering a multiverse explosion in the DC Universe.
Audiences, however, were not entirely convinced, assigning the film a lukewarm “B” CinemaScore. Without positive audience feedback or strong word-of-mouth, “The Flash” is likely to continue to struggle, especially as the summer season unfolds with high-profile releases like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”
David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research says, “This is a weak three-day opening for a superhero [film].” He does mention the precedents of “Ant-Man” and “Aquaman,” which started similarly but amassed large numbers in the end. He, however, expresses skepticism about a similar outcome for “The Flash.”
Internationally, “The Flash” also underperformed, grossing $75 million across 78 markets and taking its global total to $139 million. Unless the box office numbers see a significant uptick, the film might follow a trajectory similar to Dwayne Johnson’s “Black Adam,” a $200 million project that underperformed and failed to recover its cost.
Miller’s recent controversies and lack of traditional promotional activities could be part of the film’s lacklustre initial performance. Additionally, “The Flash” is part of the old DC universe, which will soon be rebooted and taken in a new direction by Gunn and Peter Safran. This leaves “The Flash” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” in limbo, reducing interest from comic book fans.
“Elemental,” Pixar’s animated adventure about contrasting characters, pulled in only $15 million internationally, taking its global total to a disappointing $44.5 million. However, with an “A” CinemaScore from its audience, there is hope for a recovery in ticket sales in the coming weeks due to a lack of competition in the family films category.
Nonetheless, “Elemental” holds the dubious distinction of having Pixar’s weakest opening, even worse than its less memorable films such as “The Good Dinosaur” and “Onward.” Pixar has been struggling to bounce back from the pandemic-induced downturn, which saw several movies released directly on Disney+.
In other news, Lionsgate’s horror satire “The Blackening” debuted in sixth place with $6 million. Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” held third place, earning a robust $27.8 million in its third weekend, while Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” followed in fourth and fifth places, respectively.
In the indie scene, Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” featuring a star-studded ensemble cast, earned $790,000 from six theatres in New York and Los Angeles, boasting the highest per-theatre average since 2016’s “La La Land.” As it expands into 1,500 theatres next weekend, the film will face the significant challenge of capturing mainstream audience interest – a hurdle other acclaimed indies have recently struggled with.
The summer blockbuster season is off to a shaky start, with significant releases such as “The Flash” and “Elemental” underperforming at the box office. This raises questions about audience preferences and expectations, the influence of controversy around stars, and the effectiveness of traditional movie promotion methods. The industry will be closely watching the performance of upcoming releases to gauge whether this is a temporary slump or an indication of deeper changes in viewer behaviour.
