After playing The Flash for ten years to great success, Grant Gustin’s time as Barry Allen shows that Andy Muschietti’s arguments to defend The Flash movie’s box office issues are wrong. The DCEU had quite a few movies that underperformed over the last year of the franchise. In 2023, after James Gunn and Peter Safran had already announced the DCU’s Chapter One, the comic book giant released Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. None of those films ended up being among the DCEU’s best movies or became a box office hit.

However, The Flash‘s performance stood out amid the DCEU movies. Before it was released, the film was praised by multiple top-level people in Hollywood, such as Tom Cruise, James Gunn, and Stephen King. After release, the DC movie was torn apart by fans and critics alike, who pinpointed issues like poor CGI, bizarre multiverse cameos, a convoluted plot, and more. Those issues translated into a historically bad box office run. The Flash movie reportedly had a budget of around $200 million, grossing only $271.4 million worldwide, which led to a huge loss for the studio once marketing was accounted for.

Andy Muschietti Tried To Explain The Flash Movie’s Failure

The Director Continues At DC To Take On Batman

Months away from completing two years since The Flash‘s release, director Andy Muschietti has come up with an explanation for why he believes the movie was a box office bomb. Muschietti claims that after private talks, he realized that “a lot of people just don’t care about The Flash as a character.” Since Muschietti’s The Flash was the first time that Barry Allen or any other version of DC’s speedster had a solo movie, there was no example of how the project could perform in theaters. The DCEU director also commented on another factor he felt contributed to its failure.

Muschietti mentioned how the two female quadrants of the audience were not swayed by The Flash. Hollywood divides the audience into four quadrants: Male over 25, Male under 25, Female over 25, Female under 25. According to the DCEU director, a movie with such a big budget as The Flash cannot succeed if it only appeals to the male audience, as it has to draw interest from all four quadrants. As Muschietti put it, “Warner wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters” for a movie as expensive to make as The Flash. However, that was not what happened.

Grant Gustin’s The Flash Series Was A Major Success

The Arrowverse Shows The DC Character Is Not The Problem

Muschietti’s excuses are not the explanation for why The Flash did not succeed. The reason for the movie having bombed at the box office being that the character is not a draw for audiences is simply not true. While there have not been other The Flash movies to compare to Ezra Miller’s cinematic outing, there is a very successful TV show that serves as an example of how Barry Allen can be extremely popular with audiences. Grant Gustin first played Barry in Arrow, with his guest spot turning into a lead role as the face of The CW’s The Flash.

Months before Ezra Miller’s DC movie was released in 2023, Gustin’s The Flash ended its successful run after 9 seasons. The DC series was the longest-running in the shared Arrowverse, even surpᴀssing Stephen Amell’s Arrow, which ended with season 8. The DCEU struggled over the years in theaters, with controversial releases and many behind-the-scenes issues. During that time, Gustin, Amell, and other Arrowverse stars held down the fort. The DC TV franchise showed that a successful live-action shared universe was possible for DC. Despite Amell having started the franchise, Gustin’s DC hero emerged as the face of the Arrowverse.

Warner knew how popular the Arrowverse was, as the studio asked the franchise to include Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover to get people excited about The Flash movie. There, Miller came face to face with Gustin’s version of Barry Allen — a major DC event. As noted by Entertainment Weekly, The Flash‘s 2014 series premiere became the most-watched show ever in The CW history with 6.8 million viewers. Gustin’s series would be the network’s most-watched show for several years. With 311 million hours, The Flash was also the Arrowverse’s most-watched series on Netflix in 2023.

Grant Gustin’s Continued Status Outside The Arrowverse Shows How The Flash Does Have An Audience

The Popular DC Actor Remains A Fan-Favorite

As the data shows, Grant Gustin’s The Flash was the Arrowverse’s most successful series. This easily dispels Andy Muschietti’s argument that Miller’s DCEU movie bombed because the character is one that audiences do not care about. Adding to that, the director’s choice of multiverse cameos showed how he really did not understand what DC fans wanted. While Gustin’s time as Barry Allen had come to an end earlier in 2023, fans took to social media to show they wanted Gustin to cameo as The Flash in the DCEU film. However, the actor was nowhere to be seen, which was disappointing.

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The love for Gustin’s legacy as the Arrowverse hero does not extend solely to requests for him to appear in 2023’s The Flash. Since the DC series ended, there has been a movement for the actor to reprise his role as Barry Allen, even if it is a different version of the character, in James Gunn’s DC Universe. Gunn and Gustin have talked about that a few times over the past couple of years. In March 2024, James Gunn gave a supportive response to Gustin joining the DCU, saying, “Of course I’d love to work with him at some point.”

What The DCU’s Future Holds For The Flash

Ezra Miller’s DCEU Movie Left A Negative Mark

After The Flash movie failed at the box office, DC is going to recast the character for James Gunn’s DCU. That process has already started for other Justice League members, with David Corenswet playing Superman instead of Henry Cavill and Jason Momoa leaving Aquaman behind to give life to Lobo in the new franchise. As for The Flash, Gunn recently explained on Threads (via Noobmastter-3000/Reddit) his approach to the character. According to Gunn, DC Studios is “holding a beat on development” of The Flash’s live-action return, which has to be related to the negative impression left by the movie.

Much like how there is no Justice League project on the horizon, DC Studios is letting some time pᴀss between The Flash and whenever the character appears again on the big screen. Based on how Batman’s DCU debut is confirmed but only expected to happen around 2028, it seems like Barry Allen’s next big-screen adventure, which is not even in development at the moment, could only come quite a few years from now. Before then, the speedster could appear as a supporting player in other projects, building a more positive image after 2023’s The Flash became a disappointment.

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