Box Office Thread

[Silver Nemesis]

Box office analysts are predicting that WB could lose $200 million on The Flash, with at least one analyst arguing that the studio could've cut that loss by giving the movie the Batgirl treatment and simply not releasing it at all.

If that's true, then WB might want to consider shelving Blue Beetle. They must know they're about to lose a fortune on both that and Aquaman 2. Disney is facing a similar predicament with The Marvels. Do they release a film they know is going to bomb, or cut their losses and file it as a tax write-off?

Either way, this debacle exposes the dangers of the shared universe business model.

[Silver Nemesis]

According to Forbes, The Flash is the biggest bomb in the history of the entire CBM genre.

With 'The Flash,' DC Now Has 6 Of The 10 Biggest Comic Book Movie Bombs Ever

  1.  The Flash - $200m
  2.  Shazam! Fury of the Gods - $150m
  3.  Wonder Woman 1984 - $137m
  4.  Dark Phoenix - $133m
  5.  The Suicide Squad - $130m
  6.  Black Adam - $100m
  7.  Fantastic Four - $100m
  8.  RIPD - $92m
  9.  The New Mutants - $84m
  10. Green Lantern - $75m

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/07/08/with-the-flash-dc-now-has-6-of-the-10-biggest-comic-book-movie-bombs-ever/

Movies in general have gotten ridiculously over-budgeted in recent years. This should be a wakeup call to the industry to start cutting costs.

[thecolorsblend]

I wonder where these gigantic budgets are going. It probably can't be production value because a lot of those movies have garbage effects.

Considering the advancements in CG technology in the last twenty'ish years, there's not a good reason for such expensive movies to look so awful.

[The Joker]

According to Forbes, The Flash is the biggest bomb in the history of the entire CBM genre.

With 'The Flash,' DC Now Has 6 Of The 10 Biggest Comic Book Movie Bombs Ever

  1.  The Flash - $200m

[Silver Nemesis]

I wonder where these gigantic budgets are going.

The Flash's production budget is estimated to have been $200 million, so I'm guessing:

•    Original production costs (sets, costumes, salaries) 120 million.
•    Another 30 million for reshoots.
•    20 million to bribe Clooney to reprise his most hated role.
•    29½ million in hush money to Ezra's victims.
•    500 grand for the entire special effects budget, with all CGI rendered using a Playstation 3 development kit from 2006.

That sounds about right.

[The Dark Knight]

Listening to him talk about Shumacher questioning every idea he had "why does it have to be so dark?" and listening to Andy Muschietti talk about how he basically gave Keaton an open book to write says all it does for me.

Perhaps Keaton would have done Forever if he had more say in his character. I think comedy and darkness levels of the Flash and Batman Forever are similar.

I'm not going to pretend here. The prospect of Keaton coming back in any capacity, especially when it was just an idea, was never going to be rejected by me. It's something I wanted to see. From that perspective I'm glad The Flash's concept was followed through with. We can at least die knowing he did suit up again, even if the circumstances weren't ideal. The sequence with Keaton talking about his parents made it all worthwhile to me, and bits and pieces inside the Russian base. But before this his only red mark had been the McDonald's controversy and Returns suitability for children.

Thinking more about this and my mood has changed. Any temptation to return should be denied even if we are curious and want it strongly. As Indy's father said, "let it go." Connery himself had that mentality by denying a return in KOTCS and instead enjoying his retirement, knowing nothing was going to top what he already did in Crusade. It's fitting Clooney appeared in The Flash because it's another failure to his Batman name. I've had enough of the machine in general. Affleck and maybe Garner coming back in their Daredevil roles? So what? We've seen how this goes and the magic is gone. We instead die knowing Keaton returned in a flop film with Ezra Miller. The good parts that Keaton brought don't override the rest, I'm afraid.

[thecolorsblend]

Thinking more about this and my mood has changed. Any temptation to return should be denied even if we are curious and want it strongly. As Indy's father said, "let it go." Connery himself had that mentality by denying a return in KOTCS and instead enjoying his retirement, knowing nothing was going to top what he already did in Crusade. It's fitting Clooney appeared in The Flash because it's another failure to his Batman name. I've had enough of the machine in general. Affleck and maybe Garner coming back in their Daredevil roles? So what? We've seen how this goes and the magic is gone. We instead die knowing Keaton returned in a flop film with Ezra Miller. The good parts that Keaton brought don't override the rest, I'm afraid.

It isn't that I disagree with you. What you say above is all factually true.

But I have very little objectivity when it comes to Keaton playing Batman. For me, the glass is definitely half full.

His return didn't diminish his version of the character (like Arnie in Terminator has begun doing), he wasn't made to look like a clown (like Indy in Dial Of Destiny apparently does), he wasn't arbitrarily killed early for shock value (like John Connor), the movie didn't subject him to a feature length criticism of how overrated he is (as happened to Luke Jake Skywalker) and at no time was he expected to step aside so that some woker, more diverse replacement could take over (like Logan).

All things considered, Keaton's Batman got off light. No, The Flash doesn't burnish Keaton's Batman resumé. But it doesn't damage him either. And that's all I could hope for from modern Hollywood anymore.

[The Dark Knight]

You don't have to worry about 'getting off light' if you don't go at all. That's my thinking on it now. Ultimately it's not worth it. It's something I've always thought in general but gave a free pass to with Keaton. The hype preceding the event is bigger than the event itself.

[The Laughing Fish]

With 'The Flash,' DC Now Has 6 Of The 10 Biggest Comic Book Movie Bombs Ever

  1.  The Flash - $200m

To think people called MOS and BvS flops. Nowadays, the vast majority of DC adaptations can't even reach half a billion dollars at the box office.

Hell, Suicide Squad's theatrical cut was financially successful as well, in spite of the movie being a butchered mess due to the editing. Yet people claimed TSS suffered due to the bad word of mouth of the first attempt. If that were true, then Venom wouldn't have gotten two sequels.

Now The Flash is becoming the biggest failure those idiots at WB have ever made, I wonder how many people are still gonna argue BvS was a complete flop because it didn't make a billion despite featuring the Trinity?

[The Dark Knight]

Meanwhile, Tom is cruising to another box office triumph and has 99% on RT for Dead Reckoning Part One.

Tom knows how much movies means to people and the power of the cinema going experience. He gives absolutely everything he has to meet expectations and that's being rewarded. As per his appearance on Light The Fuse podcast last year, he said studios are thinking of sequels too soon and need to let films stand alone if need be, or at least have a strong enough reason to continue.

Mission Impossible provided Tom that vehicle. He added that films don't have the protagonist and their journey in mind enough, and don't take their time to make audiences connect with the characters or the material. All so true. That criticism applies to the flops we've seen recently.

Yeah, I'm gushing about Tom Cruise again. But he's just about the only guy I respect in the film business these days. And I'll leave this interview snippet here, because in terms of recreating the past it's true. What is done is done. Let it be. Don't meet up with old friends you haven't seen for years. Make this mindset a life philosophy: