After Ezra Miller’s continued controversy, David Zaslav saying it was the “best superhero movie I’ve ever seen,†and the cancelation of Batgirl because it wasn’t good enough, The Flash may not have been worth the trouble. The newest entry in the DCEU stumbled at the box office on its opening weekend, raking in $55 million Friday through Sunday — in comparison to the $100 million it was projected to make back in April, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “The increasingly disjointed state of DC story lines is as equally to blame as other outside factors, leaving the franchise at a point where lack of consistency prevented the kind of emotional connection with most of its characters that a sprawling universe needs,†box-office analyst Shawn Robbins told THR. It looks like audiences want to run away from the DCEU and quick.
But people behind the movie can console themselves with the fact that The Flash was not the only box-office disappointment of the weekend. Pixar’s Elemental also opened to mediocre box-office returns. The film made $29.6 million on its opening weekend — an all-time low for Pixar when adjusted for inflation, according to THR. Maybe movies in which we give previously unconsidered, inanimate objects emotions that quietly wreak havoc on audience’s hearts just aren’t hitting like they used to.