‘The Flash’ Director Andy Muschietti is Wrong About Why the Movie Flopped — And Here’s Why
Andy Muschietti, director of 2023’s The Flash movie, said in an interview with Argentina’s Radio Tu (via Screen Crush) that the film flopped because “It wasn’t a movie that appealed to ‘all four quadrants.'” Muschietti’s “four quadrants” refers to the moviegoing audience, male and female, over and under 25 years of age. He added, “When you spend $200 million making a movie, Warner [Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.”
However, it seems the director failed to consider other reasons why the movie flopped.
Andy Muschietti: “People Don’t Care About The Flash”
One of the other reasons why Andy Muschietti thinks The Flash movie was a failure is because “A lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film, I’ve learned.” This isn’t the case though, because The Flash TV series that aired on the CW from 2014-2023 was the “most-watched Arrowverse show on Netflix in late 2023,” per Screen Rant. Besides, the show wouldn’t have lasted nine seasons if the character was not popular.
Other films featuring lesser-known comic characters have fared better than his movie. Case in point: Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy (a talking tree and a gun-wielding raccoon?) feature comic book characters less popular than The Flash, yet both became box office successes (except for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). These successes led to the characters appearing in more of their own films and making appearances in other MCU movies.
Dying DCEU
Before Muschietti’s The Flash hit theaters, the franchise already had several box office flops like the 2020 Birds of Prey, Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, and Zachary Levi’s second installment of Shazam! This might have also contributed to fans becoming wary of watching any DCEU movie. The franchise was clearly running out of steam; besides that, by the time The Flash hit theaters, fans knew that James Gunn had taken over DC and that he planned to reboot nearly all of the characters. The Flash no longer “mattered”: the storyline would not affect future DC movies. Of course, any film can be enjoyed (or not) on its own merits. But in a world where connected cinematic universes matter, The Flash (like Aquaman 2, Shazam 2 and Blue Beetle) were seen as “lame ducks.” They were films that were in the can, so of course Warner Brothers was going to release them (although the Batgirl film didn’t even make it to theaters; it was ditched for tax purposes). But those storylines were not going to continue in future films.
The Lead Ezra Miller’s Controversial Issues
What Andy Muschietti also failed to consider is how Ezra Miller, the actor who played the titular character, had several controversial issues in the past and how it affected the movie’s performance. Fans, of course, will be reluctant to support a movie in which the actor had grooming issues, burglary and assault charges, accusations of disorderly conduct and harassment. And women – one of the “quadrants” that Muschietti mentioned – may have been turned off by the video that circulated of Miller choking a woman in a bar (although the woman later downplayed the incident), or by reports that he threw a chair in a bar, which hit a woman. There were also reports that he groomed underage girls.
It also didn’t help Miller that The Flash TV series actor, Grant Gustin received a positive reception in his portrayal of the superhero speedster that his initial appearances in Arrow as a backdoor pilot “Led to executives choosing to develop a full pilot to make use of a larger budget and help flesh out Barry’s world in more detail,” according to Comic Basics.
Comic Book Movie also reported last year that Gustin met with DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn. Perhaps there’s still a chance for Gustin to don the speedster’s suit? “Yeah, if James Gunn asked me to play The Flash, I would do it again. I trust James Gunn.”
Gunn responded with, “Grant is an incredibly talented guy, performing now on Broadway, I believe, and is absolutely not going to waste just because he’s not currently in a DC project. But of course, I’d love to work with him at some point.”
Superhero Fatigue
Okay, superhero fatigue is real, as it seems audiences have been bombarded with superhero movies and TV shows. This is evident even with Marvel Studios, the studio that released blockbuster after blockbuster during the era of the OG Avengers (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner). In recent years, however, the MCU has also had movies that flopped, like The Eternals and The Marvels.
However, as Variety pointed out, the cure for superhero fatigue is to make better movies than The Flash. Are people tired of DC movies? Check back with us again this summer, after Superman hits theaters.
