Despite the extensive marketing campaign and high fan anticipation,The Flashstruggled at the box office for the entirety of its run, gaining such little cash that the DC project would’ve been less financially damaging than if the movie had simply been scrapped by Warner Brothers altogether. After all, it ended its run in theaters, having earned just over $270 million dollars against a reported $220 million budget. When you factor in the, no doubt, extortionately expensive cost of marketing, the film’s losses are estimated to be somewhere in the region of $200 million, making it one of the biggest box-office bombs in cinema history.
Update July 06, 2025: This article has been updated with even more reasons whyThe Flashdisappointed at the box office and the future state of the DCEU.
Surprisingly, despite being a commercial failure,The Flashreceived a lot of praise beforehand, with famed author Stephen King tweeting that while he “doesn’t care a lot about superhero movies…this one is special,” and acclaimed filmmaker James Gunn, the new Co-CEO of DC Studios, hailedThe Flashas “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Despite these famous endorsements and aRotten Tomatoes critics score of 63%, there were simply too many other factors working against the film for it to be successful. So, let’s break down each and every single reason whyThe Flashfailed.
Barry Allen, the speedy superhero known as the eponymous Flash, has been portrayed in the DCEU byEzra Millersince the character made his first appearance in 2016’sBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.After gaining critical acclaim in films such asAfterschool, We Need to Talk About Kevin,andThe Perks of Being a Wallflower,Miller gained a name for himself as an exciting young talent and quickly won over a legion of fans.
However, in recent years, the star has found himself at the center of numerous controversies, starting with a video that went viral in 2020, showing Miller choking a female fan. This incident alone led many fans to call for the actor to be removed from future projects. Though WB stuck it out with the troubled actor, outrage about the incident seemed to have blown over relatively quickly.
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But over the course of the next two years, Miller had several more run-ins with the law, many of which were caught on camera. The long list of offenses includes multiple accusations of harassment and violence against women and children, burglary, homophobia, heavy drug use, and criminal damage.
Despite this, WB chose not to dump Miller and proceeded to releaseThe Flash.However, it’s evident that these controversies affected the film’s performance, as73% of moviegoers were adult males, much higher than average, meaning that women and children refused to see the movie, most likely due to the lead actor Ezra Miller, leading to lower overall sales. The actor has since issued public apologies and entered mental health care, and it’s, as yet, unclearwhether they will act in another film again.
Studio Meddling
Before the controversies, Miller was poised to be a massive star, and aFlashfilm had been in the works since 2014. Nine years later, in 2023, the Fastest Man Alive finally arrived after numerous setbacks, multiple delays, the COVID-19 pandemic, and, like almost every other DCEU movie, interference from the studio, which did not help at all.
Zack Snyder began the DCEU withMan of Steel, laying a plan for the future of the cinematic universe for Warner Bros. But after Snyder’sBatman V Supermanfailed, WBbrought in Joss WhedonofAvengersfame to rework everything. After Whedon’sJustice Leaguefailed, WB saw a rotating roster of executives and creatives try to take control of the DCEU and fix it. Then, WB decided to bring in both James Gunn and Peter Safran, who chose to simply reboot the whole thing with the upcoming DCU.
The Flashwas developed under various leadership regimes in DC and was refit to focus on different narratives. At one point, it was a simple Flash movie, then a potential way to reboot the DCEU but keep certain elements. They wanted to bring back Michael Keaton as the main DCEU Batman, then decided against it. By the time the movie came out, a new DCU plan was in place, andThe Flashwas just an afterthought of an old regime that didn’t work.
DC Brand Is Hurt
Ever since the launch ofMan of Steel, the DC brand has been struggling. Unlike Marvel Studios, which, for years, audiences took as a sign of quality as they tended to deliver, the DCEU was always a trickier one. While early films likeMan of Steel, Batman V. Superman,andSuicide Squadwere box office hits, they were also negatively received by critics and audiences. After those early attempts, it was clear that DC films would need to stand on their own in terms of quality.
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This worked forWonder WomanandAquaman, but even some more positively received DC films like Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad did not light up the box office because of the negative stigma associated with those early films. Even a movie that was positively received, likeShazam!did not get a massive crowd of people, and itdidn’t motivate audiences to turn out forShazam! Fury of the Gods. With all that, it is no wonder why audiences did not rush out to seeThe Flash, as the only association they had with this version of the character was two cameos in poorly received films and a role in a film many people didn’t like.
Marvel Did It First
The multiverse is nothing new, and the Flash has been dealing with multiverses and alternate versions of himself since the 1961 comic storyline “Flash of Two Worlds”. However, as per the norm,DC was late to the party, with Marvel introducing the concept of the multiverse as early as 2019 inAvengers: Endgame(even earlier if you count 2018’sSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse).
This was followed by the Disney+ seriesLoki,which continued to establish the rules of the multiverse and furthered the franchise’s overall story arc. By 2021, the MCU had really started to have fun with the concept, bringing it to its fullest potential by assembling the holy trinity of Spider-Men in Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey MacGuire forSpider-Man: No Way Home, which went on to be the sixth highest-grossing film of all time.
By the timeThe Flashreared its ugly CGI head (more on that below), the concept of the multiverse had been done to death. Not just by Marvel, but the A24 filmEverything Everywhere All At Oncehad been a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The only way that DC could’ve won audiences over was by doing something completely fresh and new with the concept to make the film stand out. Alas, that was to be the case, and, as usual, they tried copying Marvel’s success to the T, but failed (as usual).
First impressions matter, that’s why studios rely so heavily on trailers when it comes to marketing their films. However, while trailers can work well to positively show off what the movie has to offer, they can also, inadvertently highlight the film’s flaws, which can have a negative impact on said film’s performance.The Flashfound that out the hard way. Immediately after the trailer was released, online discourse primarily focussed onthe poor quality of CGI it displayed. Many movie fans felt some shots, particularly ones taken from the film’s climactic battle, looked unfinished and visually unpleasing, with the trailer becoming the subject of mockery. It’s fair to say that this is not the reaction WB would’ve wanted and while some fans focussed more on the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, it certainly wasn’t the dominant topic of discussion.
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Things didn’t improve whenThe Flash was actuallyreleased, and online discourse continued to center on its poor visuals. Other recent films such asThor: Love and ThunderandAnt-Man and The Wasp: Quantumaniahave also come under fire for their below-par GGI, which has seemingly resulted from visual effects artists being overworked and having to meet strict deadlines. While both of those titles underperformed financially, neither of them bombed as badly asThe Flash, which was almost exclusively talked about in terms of its bad visuals.
WithThe Flash, WB learned a hard lesson; that there’s a key difference between fans and casual viewers. While hardcore DC fans will see a movie regardless of what the film looks like from the trailer, casual audiences won’t bother spending the money if the film looks bad.
Competition
The Flashwas released in theaters on August 06, 2025. It was a prime summer release date. Yet the negative word of mouth kept audiences away, and they had even more options to go see. A week prior,Transformers: Rise of the Beastshad hit theaters and opened to the same opening weekend as The Flash and would even hold better in the following weeks. In addition,Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseopened two weeks before The Flash. BothSpider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseandThe Flasharesuperhero movies about the multiverse, but whereasThe Flashgot terrible reviews,Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versegot glowing reviews from fans and critics.
What was worse is that the other movie that opened the same day asThe Flash, Pixar’sElemental, eclipsed it. While the film was originally seen as a disappointment with the lowest opening weekend in Pixar history and coming in belowThe Flash,Elementalreceived positive word of mouth and eventually grossed morethanThe Flashover the coming weeks. Following that, there were movies likeIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1,BarbieandOppenheimer,and it was clearThe Flashdid not stand a chance.
Fans Don’t Feel The DCEU Doesn’t Matter Anymore
Fans were relieved and exhilarated to have director Gunn at the helm of DC films, with producer Safran to help. Manyviewed their appointment as refreshing, and it saw a new sense of hope in the franchise installed in fans and casual viewers alike. Gunn arrived with several superhero hits under his belt, such asGuardians of the GalaxyandThe Suicide Squad, plus his generous habit of taking to Twitter to answer fan questions surely helped to win people over.
Though Gunn’s decision to reboot the DCEU by replacing it with the DCU has actually, so far, proven to do more harm to the franchise than good. Starting with a clean slate is great for new films set to be released down the line, but it’s far less beneficial for the more recent titles that still fall under the DCEU brand. It’s not something that was specific toThe Flash; bothBlack Adambefore it, andBlue Beetlesuffered similar fates as a result of the incoming DCU essentially rendering them obsolete. Though, it should be noted that neither of those tanked as much asThe Flash.
Ultimately, why would audiences want to watch a film set in a cinematic universe that will no longer exist in the near future? While what matters is if the movie itself is good, many audiences only now care about how it relates in terms of continuity. It will be interesting to see if the last of the DCEU releases,Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,is destined to go down the same route. Whatever the case, it’s clear that this bizarre release strategy has not been financially beneficial, andThe Flashis, so far at least, the biggest casualty of it.
