An exact breakdown of The Flash movie’s box office bomb
Warner Bros. / DC ComicsDCEU‘s The Flash movie was the worst box office bomb in history, as Ezra Miller’s controversial past led to many fans boycotting the movie and Warner Bros. Pictures losing a lot of money.
Between Henry Cavill leaving as Superman and Ben Affleck’s future as Batman, The Flash movie had everyone hopeful – until it crashed and burned. Ezra Miller, who starred as Barry Allen, has been in multiple scandals since 2020. The scandals include assault on fans, harassment, burglary, and alleged child grooming.
Many fans believed Miller would get the boot as Barry Allen. But Warner Bros. was adamant about keeping him and felt no other actor could play the role. Miller’s most recent child grooming allegations had many fans boycotting The Flash’s premiere.
It worked as The Flash became one of the studio’s worst box office bombs, with an estimated $220 million budget. While its storyline was well executed, Miller’s past caused The Flash to not make a dent in getting Warner Bros. its money back.
The Flash movie lost Warner Bros. over $200 Million
While fans may think The Flash movie did not do that bad considering its $220 million budget, a complete breakdown revealed it lost Warner Bros. $260 million.
According to CanWeGetSomeToast on Twitter, the loss of money from fans boycotting the movie is much more complicated than it seems. The total money lost is not just based on box office numbers. Interweaved is how much it cost for marketing, and how much the theaters brought in.
“For those who think #TheFlash didn’t do that bad: The movie’s budget was $220M, but that doesn’t account for the marketing budget (which was around an additional $150M). That makes the total budget around $400M. Theaters ALWAYS take around 1/3 of the Box Office, meaning that the movie only brought in $80M for WBD. The Flash lost the studio around $320M. This is a colossal bomb,” explained CanWeGetSomeToast.
But they later corrected some of the numbers, stating the studio brought in $140 million. According to their estimations, it made the total loss for Warner Bros. a staggering $260 million.
The cast and crew of The Flash movie believed it would be a grand success on opening night… boy were they wrong. Producer Paul Austerberry argued that everyone would “forget” about Miller’s controversial and damaging past once the movie was released.
The fate of Barry Allen is questionable as the finale of The Flash movie left a lot to be explored, but will Miller stay for the long run after the trouble he caused?
You can read about the latest news about The Flash 2 here, and Ezra Miller’s scandals here.
