Despite the extensive marketing campaign and high fan anticipation, The Flash is still struggling weeks after release, gaining such little cash that DC’s latest project is more disastrous than if the movie had simply been scrapped altogether by Warner Brothers – as it will probably not pay for itself, much less its very expensive marketing – making The Flash the worst superhero box office flop in history.

The Flash received 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, hailed The Flash as “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Despite these famous beneficial reactions with mostly positive critic reviews and being a good movie itself, there were simply too many other problems working against the film for it to be successful. Let’s break down every reason why The Flash failed.

Controversial Lead Actor
Warner Bros.

Barry Allen, the speedy superhero known as the Flash that the eponymous film followed, played the star Ezra Miller, has been surrounded by controversies for years, ever since a video went viral of Miller choking a female fan in 2020, leading to many fans calling 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.

But the following year, in 2021, Miller had numerous more viral videos showing clashes with the law, as many incidents with the police for harassing women and grooming children made things worse. WB didn’t dump Miller, though, and released The Flash. Though it’s evident that these controversies affected the film’s performance, as 73% 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, though Miller “barely identifies as human,” so the star may need quite a bit of help.

Studio Meddling
Warner Bros.

Before the controversies, Miller was poised to be a massive star, so a Flash film has been in the works since 2013. Ten years later, in 2023, the Fastest Man Alive finally arrived after numerous setbacks, multiple delays, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The Flash is a flop, like almost every other DCEU movie. And like almost every other DCEU movie, The Flash suffered the same studio meddling, which did not help at all.

Zack Snyder began the DCEU with Man of Steel, laying a plan for the future of the cinematic universe for Warner Bros. But after Snyder’s Batman V Superman failed, WB brought in Joss Whedon of Avengers fame to rework everything. And after Whedon’s Justice League failed, WB moved in Walter Hamada to fix the mess, which led only to actors quitting and more frustration. Then WB decided to bring in both James Gunn and Peter Safran, who chose to simply reboot the whole thing with the upcoming DCU.

Each new leader redeveloped The Flash every time until Gunn and Safran decided not to even care anymore, focusing on a whole new universe. Each contrasting vision clashes with simple no-one-not-even-the-CEOs-cares-anymore muddled The Flash beyond repair.

Related: The Flash: Biggest Questions Which Will Never Be Answered

The DCEU Doesn’t Matter Anymore
Max

Fans were relieved and exhilarated to have director Gunn at the helm of DC with producer Safran to help, as their leadership is refreshing and instills a new sense of hope in fans for the franchise. Gunn arriving with several superhero hits under his belt like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, plus personally taking to Twitter to answer questions and give updates surely helped win over fans.

Though Gunn’s decision to reboot the DCEU and replace it with the DCU has actually harmed DC. Starting with a clean slate is great for the new films but not so for the old movies already planned. The DCEU is essentially a lame-duck franchise; its installments are no longer relevant as they simply won’t matter afterward.

The Flash falls into this category as Black Adam did, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will, earning little as the films with its characters and events simply a footnote in DC’s changing of the guard even before release. This also shows that Gunn may not be as perfect as we’d like to believe.

Related: The Flash: Biggest Plot Holes, Explained

Marvel Did It First
Marvel Studios

The multiverse is nothing new, and the Flash has been dealing with multiverses and alternate versions of himself since the 1961 comic Flash of Two Worlds. But DC was late in the movie game, per the norm, as Marvel introduced the multiverse in 2019 in the still remaining second highest-grossing film ever, Avengers: Endgame, continuing to set the rules in the popular series Loki, and bringing it to its fullest potential in 2021 by assembling the trio of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey MacGuire all donning the Spider-Man costume for Spider-Man: No Way Home, bringing three generations of fans into one movie, and reaching the third highest grossing film ever at the time.

DC, as usual, tried copying Marvel’s success to the T but failed, as usual. And trying to even make any multiverse movie stand out after Marvel’s smash hit would be difficult, at best. If DC had made it across the finish line first, The Flash might have done better.

No Zack Snyder
Warner Bros/HBO Max

Despite Zack Snyder’s failure with the DCEU, fans still love him. He had a viable plan for everything from the start, and even failed DCEU films like Justice League have a Snyder Cut version which is always far better with fans and critics. Fans have always bemoaned the lost opportunity of the Snyderverse, which never happened.

If Snyder had stayed in charge at DC and the Snyderverse had come to fruition, then The Flash would have indubitably been better and would, at least, break even.