“The Flash” director says movie failed partly because women don't care about the character

By the time The Flash hit theaters in 2023 after years of delays, it was old news. James Gunn and Peter Safran had already been appointed as the new co-heads of DC Studios and were planning a relaunch of the superhero universe that would owe nothing to Zack Snyder's Justice League, which cast Ezra Miller as the scarlet speedster. The Flash ended up making around $270 million at the global box office, barely more than its roughly $200 million budget.

In a new interview with Radio Tu's YouTube show La Baulera del Coso, The Flash director Andy Muschietti explained why he thinks the movie failed at the box office. One reason, according to Muschietti, is that The Flash didn't appeal to a wide enough audience to make back its massive budget.

"When a $200 million movie is made, the studio wants to bring even your grandmother to the cinema," Muschietti said, through an English translation. "Then I found out things like that a lot of people who are not interested in the Flash character...there are many women who are not interested in the Flash as a character...but I am very happy with the movie."

There was also controversy surrounding Miller, who was arrested multiple times in Hawaii for public disturbances in 2022 and was accused of harassing minors on several occasions. That August, Miller (who uses they/them pronouns) said in a statement that they had "begun ongoing treatment," but did not give any promotional interviews for The Flash ahead of its release despite making a rare appearance at the film's premiere.

"As many people know, we had a publicity crisis with the the main actor, who is Ezra Miller, who got into trouble due to a mental health situation," Muschietti said. "When you make a movie, there are really things that you can't control, and one of them is when actors have a PR crisis... I had, in general, a very good experience with them. They are a great actor and a great comedian."

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Related: How Grant Gustin runs The Flash — and the Arrowverse — across the finish line 

And yet the character proved popular enough on TV, where The Flash ran for 9 seasons on The CW as part of the Arrowverse that also included DC superhero shows like Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (it finally came to an end with the Superman & Lois finale last year). Although there have been multiple incarnations of the superhero across the history of DC Comics, Miller and TV's Grant Gustin both played Barry Allen, a forensic scientist who gains superspeed after getting struck by lightning and a bunch of chemicals. So it may not have been an issue of dislike as much as fatigue — especially since the movie's plot revolved heavily around multiverses, which audiences had already started to tire of following Everything Everywhere All at Once's Oscar wins.

Watch Muschietti's full interview below.

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