The Flash is already off to a good start at the box office – and generating all the racing/running puns you would expect, along the way. The Flash’s Thursday preview night box office earnings came in at $9.7 million, with current projections for opening weekend ranging from $68-85 million.
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Those projections put The Flash ahead of DC’s other recent projects. Black Adam opened to $7.6 million on preview night, before going on to earn $67M on opening weekend. Shazam! Fury of the Gods was the latest DC movie to open in theaters before The Flash; it only earned $3.4M from Thursday night previews, and only $30.1M on opening weekend. Clearly, The Flash is a much more highly-anticipated superhero blockbuster film than Shazam 2 or Black Adam were, and the question now is just how far it can run at the box office (there go the puns…).
Aquaman has been DC’s most successful box office earner ($1.15 billion); that film earned $9 million from Thursday night previews, before going on to earn $67.9M-73.2M at box office on opening weekend (including all special preview events). If The Flash hits those kinds of opening numbers, it will be very interesting to see what kinds of new projections spring up.
The Flash seems to be generating much higher audience scores than its middling critic reviews; at the time of writing this (on opening day) hype over the multi-character performances of Flash star Ezra Miller seems to be keeping a step ahead of the controversy over Miller’s offscreen controversies and arrests. That’s all to say: the Back to the Future-style comedic adventure may generate the sort of word-of-mouth that sustains its theatrical run for weeks to come. The Flash may actually have some good runway in front of it: it will be the only big superhero movie in theaters until DC hits again with Blue Beetle in August; the inclusion of Michael Keaton’s Batman will help draw in an older demographic of viewers in latter weeks, in addition to the younger superhero movie fan quadrant; and any new announcements from DC Studios about the franchise reboot (see: Comic-Con) may help motivate late waves of viewers to still go see The Flash as an event film that “matters” to the larger franchise to come.
In terms of box office competition: Pixar’s Elemental and horror-comedy The Blackening are both projected to be largely non-competitors, and The Flash doesn’t necessarily have the same family-film appeal as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and while the remainder of June and July have some big movies coming down the pike (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Barbie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One) The Flash is a good second-tier option for any theater-goers looking to avoid the larger crowds. Is the billion-dollar finish line in reach for The Flash? Probably not. But a few hundred-million dollars and some overwhelmingly good feedback from viewers is the kind of turnaround that DC and Warner Bros. definitely need, right about now.
The Flash speeds into theaters on June 16th, promising to reshape the DC Multiverse with the help of familiar faces and brand-new heroes. Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) ventures to the past to change history, resulting in massive repercussions for the future. Forced to team up with another version of Barry, the mysterious Kryptonian known as Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and the iconic Batman (Michael Keaton), the Scarlet Speedster is forced to reckon with his mistakes and save a doomed reality. The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti, written by Christina Hodson from a story by Joby Harold, and produced by Barbara Muschietti.
The Flash is in theaters.
Source: Variety
