The Flash‘s disappointing box office opening continues a trend for DC Universe (DCU) films and has renewed fans’ calls for Warner Bros. to release Batgirl. It’s still too early to determine how The Flash’s box office performance will ultimately pan out, but it’s off to a shaky start. The film, which was highly hyped by Warner Bros. executives David Zaslav and James Gunn, garnered just $55.1 million over its first three days.
This number was much lower than the initial box office estimates that predicted the film finishing its opening with at least $70 million or higher. Additionally, with a hefty budget of up to $220 million, not including marketing costs, The Flash may be gearing up to follow in Black Adam’s and Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ footsteps.
While The Flash’s poor reception may get more attention due to Ezra Miller’s controversies and the hype it received beforehand, it is actually the third box office disappointment in a row for Warner Bros. The last DC film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, was a major box office bomb, finishing with just $133.8 million worldwide against a budget of $110–125 million.
Meanwhile, Black Adam finished at $393.3 million worldwide. Reports differed on whether the film resulted in a loss or profit due to different estimates of marketing costs. However, even if it did turn a modest profit, it certainly wasn’t the box office game-changer that Dwayne Johnson was hyping it up to be, or that the studio likely wanted to see.
All of these flops suggest that Warner Bros. needs to do something different, or at least that they should have listened to complaints about controversial figures like Miller leading films. Meanwhile, this has turned many fans’ attention back to Batgirl.
Fans want to see Batgirl amid studio flops
DCU fans haven’t forgotten about Batgirl even a year after it was canceled by Warner Bros. The film was initially set to be a Max original starring Leslie Grace as Batgirl, alongside Michael Keaton’s Batman and Brendan Fraser’s DCU debut as Firefly. It would’ve been the first film since 1997 to have brought Batgirl to the big screen, and fans were excited about Grace’s iteration.
However, in August of 2022, Warner Bros. announced it was shelving Batgirl due to the film supposedly not being aligned with the new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s vision for the studio and a renewed focus on theatrical releases. Unfortunately, fans have never really received a straight answer on why Batgirl was canceled. Most suspect that it was so that the studio could use it as a tax write-off, given that it was canceled in post-production with a budget of $90 million.
Since then, Warner Bros. execs have claimed that the film was “not releasable” and would’ve “hurt” the DC brand. Initial reports claimed that early screenings were negative and that the film was cheap-looking, but other subsequent reports refuted these claims. Most viewers find it hard to believe that the film was as atrocious as Warner Bros. painted it to be, especially because the studio was so very wrong about its most recent three films. The studio was willing to take a big risk on The Flash, spending a hefty $200 million on the film and still releasing it theatrically despite its lead actor being so controversial. Surely, Batgirl wouldn’t have been as big a risk as that, and it certainly had a lot less to lose as an exclusive streaming release with a much more reasonable budget than The Flash and Black Adam.
Now, fans are renewing calls for Warner Bros. to release Batgirl. The studio has had three misses in a row that “hurt” the DC brand, so how much more damage could Batgirl do? If anything, it would help the studio finally move away from its tired Justice League characters. Let’s also not forget that a female-led film, Wonder Woman, was one of the DCU’s best performing films to date, both critically and commercially. Lastly, one of the few high points of The Flash was Keaton’s Batman, and it would’ve been great to see him fighting crime alongside a fellow formidable Bat-family member rather than babysitting the Flashes.
Warner Bros.’ recent DCU misses show that the studio’s judgment isn’t infallible, and maybe it’s time it listens to what fans want from the franchise rather than what it thinks will work for a theoretical bottom line.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures/Max)
