Movies The Flash could be the biggest box office flop in North American history (maybe worldwide?), losing Warner Bros. $200 million

[SaysWho?]

The Flash Could Lose Warner Bros. Discovery Almost $200 Million

WWW.CBR.COM

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The Flash's second weekend drop-off at the U.S. box office could reportedly put the movie on track to lose Warner Bros. Discovery $200 million.

 

Despite this being reported on before, I see it making the rounds now for some reason. It was posted in a box office thread here:

 

[Bacon]

[Remarkableriots]

Which DC movie will be the biggest box office disappointment in 2023?

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The Flash

Blue Beetle

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

Which DC movie will be the biggest box office disappointment in 2023?

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The Flash

Blue Beetle

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

 

Yes.

[Remarkableriots]

Hopefully this leads to DC being sold off to pay off all that debt.

[Remarkableriots]

Warner Bros. Discovery's stock down 50% since merger — why analysts are still bullish

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

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Warner Bros. Discovery has faced an uphill battle since the completion of its $43 billion...

Shares of Paramount, Warner Bros. fall after downgrades - MarketWatch

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Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery stocks fell Friday, after Wolfe Research cut its rating, citing increasing concerns about falling ad...

 

[Rev]

Shazam was fun imo. The first one was surprisingly great and the second one was .. fun and forgettable but I'm happy I watched it. I don't know if I'll ever watch The Flash. 

[Remarkableriots]

1 hour ago, Rev said:

Shazam was fun imo. The first one was surprisingly great and the second one was .. fun and forgettable but I'm happy I watched it. I don't know if I'll ever watch The Flash. 

It only made $133 Million Worldwide box office compared to Black Adam which made $393 Million.

[69los]

9 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

It only made $133 Million Worldwide box office compared to Black Adam which made $393 Million.

 

[silentbob]

It’s no longer playing in my 2 local theatres already. Bring on the 4K disc already

[TwinIon]

I continue to be surprised that this movie did so poorly and I can't decide how much of it is a demand problem and how much of it was an advertising failure.

 

They're really going to have to work overtime to sell Gunn's DC films.

[skillzdadirecta]

8 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I continue to be surprised that this movie did so poorly and I can't decide how much of it is a demand problem and how much of it was an advertising failure.

 

They're really going to have to work overtime to sell Gunn's DC films.

I truly believe it's a branding problem. Talking to regular folks who don't follow this shit on the internet and they just ASSUME that DC movies are gonna suck... outisde of Batman and this branding issue may start to affect his films as well. Not sure how well The Batman did but I know a lot of folks presonally who weren't exactly rushing to the theaters to see it.

[Kal-El814]

21 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I truly believe it's a branding problem. Talking to regular folks who don't follow this shit on the internet and they just ASSUME that DC movies are gonna suck... outisde of Batman and this branding issue may start to affect his films as well. Not sure how well The Batman did but I know a lot of folks presonally who weren't exactly rushing to the theaters to see it.

 

The Batman did about $770M. So it did well, but we're not even at Guardians 3 / Multiverse of Madness level, we're more like Love and Thunder.

 

I dunno what DC could do to put asses in seats right now. Their biggest recent success is Aquaman which is wild.

[Ghost_MH]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

I dunno what DC could do to put asses in seats right now.

 

Build goodwill with smaller, better movies or, I don't know, build something around DC's one beloved property they've had zero desire to actually capitalize on? Fucking Teen Titans. Even when they did go live action series they went grim dark and tried to distance themselves from the animated series that are so well loved by the fandom. Just why? It's New 52 all over again where there were all these new fans that would totally be into a new Teen Titans comic and they just pissed it all away by going grim dark and trying to distance themselves from the animated series.

 

I don't get it. DC, obviously, doesn't. I don't know why anybody would give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Gavin King]

A lot of different issues for The Flash, but I think the biggest is branding of the DCU. #1, most of them have been average at best. #2, it's well known that it's killed and they're rebooting. Why invest time and hard-earned money into something that doesn't mean anything? Most people will just wait a couple months and watch it for free on streaming.

 

The reboot is much needed, but hopefully they build it slowly and the right way. If they rush into it, they will fail all over again.

[stepee]

I bet Joker 2 next year goes 1bil+ at least 

[silentbob]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

The Batman did about $770M. So it did well, but we're not even at Guardians 3 / Multiverse of Madness level, we're more like Love and Thunder.

 

I dunno what DC could do to put asses in seats right now. Their biggest recent success is Aquaman which is wild.

Yeah but it was also close to 3hrs and some markets still had Covid restrictions going on. Batman Begins didn’t do great on its first release, and then The Dark Knight pretty much tripled that. Build a good word of mouth and people will respond positively, but Flash had no where to go really with a reboot happening. Plus Ezra Miller’s past public actions and current LGBTQ+ environment could have been a factor as well. I honestly just wanna see it, just to see Keaton as Batman again

[Ghost_MH]

8 minutes ago, silentbob said:

I honestly just wanna see it, just to see Keaton as Batman again

 

WB just needs to make two movies. Batman Beyond with Keaton and I don't really care who and Teen Titans that's actually leans into the characters created for the 2003 animated series. You know, because DC animation from the mid-late 90s and early 00s was so good and those fans are just the right age to want to bring their kids to theaters to watch those version of the heroes on screen.

[Keyser_Soze]

10 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I continue to be surprised that this movie did so poorly and I can't decide how much of it is a demand problem and how much of it was an advertising failure.

 

To me heroes like The Flash and Aquaman (and their Marvel equivalent Namor and Quicksilver) were always lame. Why would I want to watch guy who runs fast or guy who swims? An extension of that is Green Arrow / Hawkeye (why would I want to watch guy who shoots arrows?) Give me a damn hero who can pick up cars and do crazy stuff. That's why I think Blue Beetle will do better than this movie. Give me an Enchantress, Raven, Starfire movie. Some cool shit.

[skillzdadirecta]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

To me heroes like The Flash and Aquaman (and their Marvel equivalent Namor and Quicksilver) were always lame. Why would I want to watch guy who runs fast or guy who swims? An extension of that is Green Arrow / Hawkeye (why would I want to watch guy who shoots arrows?) Give me a damn hero who can pick up cars and do crazy stuff. That's why I think Blue Beetle will do better than this movie. Give me an Enchantress, Raven, Starfire movie. Some cool shit.

That's not it at all... Nobody including most comic fans knew who the Guardians of the Galaxy even where and yet it's become one of the biggest franchises in the superhero genre. It features a a talking racoon and his best friend a fucking Tree that only says three words. Even Aquaman, who you say is lame, made a billion dollars at the box office. it's all about how you handle these characters and not the characters themselves. Who would have thought a movie about The Joker WITHOUT Batman could be good much less a box office hit? I sure as hell didn't.

 

4 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Build goodwill with smaller, better movies or, I don't know, build something around DC's one beloved property they've had zero desire to actually capitalize on? Fucking Teen Titans. Even when they did go live action series they went grim dark and tried to distance themselves from the animated series that are so well loved by the fandom. Just why? It's New 52 all over again where there were all these new fans that would totally be into a new Teen Titans comic and they just pissed it all away by going grim dark and trying to distance themselves from the animated series.

 

I don't get it. DC, obviously, doesn't. I don't know why anybody would give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

I have a buddy who LOVES Teen Titans the cartoon but couldn't care less about the grim dark live action version which was always tonally wrong... "Fuck Batman"? Really?

[Keyser_Soze]

26 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

That's not it at all... Nobody including most comic fans knew who the Guardians of the Galaxy even where and yet it's become one of the biggest franchises in the superhero genre. It features a a talking racoon and his best friend a fucking Tree that only says three words.

 

It's true no one knew who they were but they are at the very least they are cool characters. As for becoming the biggest franchise MCU popularity was is full string but even at the time (anecdotally) my friends thought it looked dumb and didn't want to see it. I had to go to the theater alone to watch it and enjoyed it.

 

And yeah Aquaman is lame.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

It's true no one knew who they were but they are at the very least they are cool characters. As for becoming the biggest franchise MCU popularity was is full string but even at the time (anecdotally) my friends thought it looked dumb and didn't want to see it. I had to go to the theater alone to watch it and enjoyed it.

 

And yeah Aquaman is lame.

They weren't "cool characters" or even considered cool until someone made them cool. Rocket in the movie is nothing like Rocket in the comics pre-2014 or whenever that movie came out. 

[Keyser_Soze]

15 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

They weren't "cool characters" or even considered cool until someone made them cool. Rocket in the movie is nothing like Rocket in the comics pre-2014 or whenever that movie came out. 

 

A talking racoon in any form is cooler than Hawkeye imo.

 

By the way in regards to what heroes are cool it's merely my opinion, I'm not using it as a metric to a film's success although if people shared my opinion theoretically it could affect the success of the movie.

 

Also, I would add on to my previous statement, Aquaman's success most likely being attributed to Jason Mamoa's rise to popularity. I mean who wouldn't want to see him?

(for the record I did not see it )

 

One last remark about Marvel vs DC and their "coolness" growing up DC comics always felt like the WCW to Marvel (being the WWF/WWE). Marvel just had that edge to it and DC felt like a watered down version of that. Superman and Batman are cool but once you get past that it's like, eh. Then you go to Marvel and anything X-Men was just the coolest thing ever. Beyond that I'd even take Image comics or Top Cow over DC. Give me a Gen 13, PITT, Witchblade,The Darkness, Fathom, Super Patriot, Savage Dragon (the list goes on) movie. Just do it!

 

[Spork3245]

Did they lose enough where they can release Batgirl?

[TwinIon]

12 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

To me heroes like The Flash and Aquaman (and their Marvel equivalent Namor and Quicksilver) were always lame. Why would I want to watch guy who runs fast or guy who swims? An extension of that is Green Arrow / Hawkeye (why would I want to watch guy who shoots arrows?) Give me a damn hero who can pick up cars and do crazy stuff. That's why I think Blue Beetle will do better than this movie. Give me an Enchantress, Raven, Starfire movie. Some cool shit.

I imagine this is a bit tongue in cheek, but the guy who runs fast had the stand out action sequence in two X-Men films and a DC film and just ended a nine season, 184 episode run on TV. The stand alone Aquaman movie made a billion dollars, the last movie with Namor made $450M domestic (but shockingly didn't cross a billion WW). I have no doubt that a Flash movie could have been a billion dollar film. Add in a significant role from DCs most bankable hero and it should have been able to do better.

[skillzdadirecta]

6 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

One last remark about Marvel vs DC and their "coolness" growing up DC comics always felt like the WCW to Marvel (being the WWF/WWE).

This has always been the perception between Marvel and DC pretty much since Marvel came on the scene in the 60's and unfortunately for DC, it has persisted even now into film. Marvel was always seen as being "cooler" and were always able to keep most of their characters current with the times without having to reboot their entiree universe to do so. For some reason DC has always struggled with this and I really don't know why. DC has some pretty cool characters as well... shit they prett much invented a lot of the superhero archtypes that other companies including Marvel copied. It's so strange.

 

Your post did make me wonder though why we haven't seen as many Image characters make it to the big and small screen? Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, PITT, Gen 13, The MAXXX... all of these characters have had cartoons or shows in the 90's and 2000's and definitely have grown fans who remember them as kids who would be interested in movies or tv shows. I wonder why Image hasn't done anything with their superhero properties. Could it be that they are creator owned for the most part? Their non-superhero stuff has been more successful coming to the big and small screen than their superhero stuff.

[Keyser_Soze]

27 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Your post did make me wonder though why we haven't seen as many Image characters make it to the big and small screen? Spawn, Savage Dragon, Witchblade, PITT, Gen 13, The MAXXX... all of these characters have had cartoons or shows in the 90's and 2000's and definitely have grown fans who remember them as kids who would be interested in movies or tv shows. I wonder why Image hasn't done anything with their superhero properties. Could it be that they are creator owned for the most part? Their non-superhero stuff has been more successful coming to the big and small screen than their superhero stuff.

 

Before I made that post when I was looking up some of the comics just sounds like some have been in production hell.

 

Looks like Witchblade was going to have a movie but it got cancelled in 2009 (including a video game), The Darkness was supposed to have a movie, at least according to wikipedia in 2012 Len Wiseman signed on to become the director but sounds like nothing happened since he's directed several movies since.

 

Spawn was in Mortal Kombat 11 it's prime time for him to make a comeback.

 

Just sounds like they need to get their shit together or they're just being complacent. Now is the time, comic book movies are a regular thing and even if you don't bring it to theaters there are plenty of streaming services willing to show your content.

 

And yeah The MAXXX and The Head on MTV back in the day

[stepee]

Kinda on topic, I’d love another The Darkness game. I actually thought The Darkness 2 was fantastic and a lot of fun. The only person who agreed with me was Lucian though, so idk what that says about me.

[Remarkableriots]

Supposedly Scott Silver, Malcolm Spellman, and Matthew Mixon are working on a rewrite for a Spawn screenplay for an upcoming movie.

[SuperSpreader]

Spawn is a stupid character 

[unogueen]

2 hours ago, SuperSpreader said:

Spawn is a stupid character 

Pretty decent movie for impressionable youngin. Saw it with a church group somehow.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 minutes ago, unogueen said:

Saw it with a church group somehow.

Holy shit that must have been QUITE the experience 

[unogueen]

16 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Holy shit that must have been QUITE the experience 

No worries. We were a church group as in people who met at church, as teens. Some dawson's creek shit went down.

[Ghost_MH]

5 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

This has always been the perception between Marvel and DC pretty much since Marvel came on the scene in the 60's and unfortunately for DC, it has persisted even now into film. Marvel was always seen as being "cooler" and were always able to keep most of their characters current with the times without having to reboot their entiree universe to do so. For some reason DC has always struggled with this and I really don't know why. DC has some pretty cool characters as well... shit they prett much invented a lot of the superhero archtypes that other companies including Marvel copied. It's so strange.

 

Nobody can convince me there isn't some DC exec that was around during the rise of Marvel and is still salty that Marvel was labeled the cool kid and is taking themselves way too seriously as a result. DC has to reboot their franchise bcause it's all too sacred and they're going to stubbornly prove their heroes are timeless.

[SuperSpreader]

DCs problem is they can't stay current because their world is invented/doesn't take place in real cities in real time. In order to refresh they can't just evolve the world they have to reboot the whole thing.