‘The Flash’ Takes $9.7 Million at Thursday Box Office

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” lassoed the top spot on domestic box office charts, collecting an underwhelming $60 million in its opening weekend. That’s a decent amount of money for a tentpole that’s aimed at older audiences, but “Indiana Jones 5,” one of the most expensive movies ever, cost $295 million before marketing. It’ll take a heroic feat, one that would test even an enduring legend like Indiana Jones, for the fifth installment in the decades-old franchise to become profitable in its theatrical run. It was a disappointing weekend at the box office as “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” a $70 million-budgeted family film from DreamWorks and Universal, cratered in its sixth-place debut with $5.2 million. In addition to “Dial of Destiny” and “Ruby Gillman,” the DC superhero adventure “The Flash” tumbled to the No. 8 spot in its third weekend of release with $5 million, another embarrassing 67% drop. It has yet to cross $100 million domestically, with ticket sales at $99.2 million to date.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The film stars Harrison Ford in his fifth and final portrayal of archeologist-extraordinaire Jones. “While Ford is scrappy and lovable as ever, Indy was never a role that should have been played for 41 years,” The Post said.“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” remained in second place this week, taking home $3.435 million.

J. Kim Murphy Indiana Jones has begun his last box office crusade, with the fifth franchise entry earning $24 million on its opening day from 4,600 theaters. It’s a figure that includes $7.2 million in previews in Thursday previews. The action-adventure film from Disney and Lucasfilm is expected to debut near the bottom of projections, projecting a three-day opening of $60 million or so. It’ll be more than enough for the Harrison Ford finale to land in the top spot on domestic charts, setting itself up to draw crowds through the Fourth of July holiday — but it’s not exactly the victorious tone-setter for one of the 20 or so most expensive blockbusters ever made. With a whopping $295 million production budget, “Indiana Jones 5” faces quite the trek to theatrical profitability.

65% and 5.7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) animated original for an opening under $10 million. Even with DreamWorks’ history of very leggy releases (with multipliers ranging from 3.5x to 4.5x even for non-zeitgeist titles), the coming-of-age comedy is probably going to be another black mark for non-sequel/non-IP animated theatricals.

EXCLUSIVE: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destinyis posting an estimated $6M-$7.5M Thursday night per sources, which is where previous older skewing action guy comps live.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” have generated massive business, the kind that would have been impressive in pre-COVID times. And movies like “Cocaine Bear,” “Scream VI” and “Evil Dead Rise” have been solid mid-budget hits, selling tickets in the spring and winter months when cinemas are hustling to keep seats filled. Overall, the domestic box office stands at $4.35 billion, a 20.7% improvement over where ticket sales clocked in at the same point in the pandemic-blighted 2022, according to Comscore. So things are getting better, and there are several promising films on the horizon such as “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Barbie” that could prove to be big summer hits.

Naman Ramachandran Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” swung back to pole position atop the U.K. and Ireland box office, dethroning Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” in the process. In its fourth weekend, “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” collected £1.99 million ($2.5 million) for a total of £23.4 million, according to numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, “The Flash” took £1.3 million for a total of £6.7 million. Sony’s “No Hard Feelings” bowed in third place with £1.18 million, while Universal’s “Asteroid City” debuted close behind in fourth position with £1.17 million.

As the summer season shines onto the box office, movie grosses don’t match what they used to be in seasons past.

Sony’s mission to return comedy to the big screen with the R-rated Jennifer Lawrence movie No Hard Feelings began Thursday, when the film grossed $2.15 million from showtimes that began at 4 p.m. at 2,745 locations. The pic hopes to do around $12M this weekend in what will be second session where Warner Bros’ misfire The Flash hopes not take a -70% tumble. At the low end that’s $16.5M. A good hold will be off 55% to north of $24M.

Jennifer Lawrence’s much-discussed return to studio star vehicles, in a film being pitched as a canary in the coal mine for the theatrical strength of star-driven comedies, got off to a promising start as Sony’s “No Hard Feelings” earned $2.15 million in Thursday previews. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” which shattered records for a per-theater-average for a six-screen (or more) release last weekend, expanded into 1,675 theaters with $1.1 million for Focus Features.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After struggling at the domestic box office, this weekend’s two major releases — the Warner Bros. superhero adaptation “The Flash” and Disney’s Pixar adventure “Elemental” — failed to catch fire with international audiences. “The Flash” pulled in $75 million in its international box office debut, which doesn’t sound all that bad… except when considering the movie is available in 78 overseas markets. That means it failed to hit $1 million in the vast majority of the territories in play. China led the way with a lackluster $13.8 million, followed by Mexico with $9.4 million, the United Kingdom with $5.3 million, Korea with $3.7 million and Brazil with $3.5 million.

Ben Croll The walls of Barcelona’s international convention center might soon rattle once the 4,000 European exhibitors, suppliers and service providers in town for the CineEurope trade show breathe out a collective sigh of relief. At the root of such succor are Europe’s more than encouraging box-office admissions, which saw a marked uptick in late 2022 and have continued to rise into the new year. “I think this edition will be very much about celebrating because 2022 was a much better year than 2021,” says Laura Houlgatte, CEO of the Intl. Union of Cinemas (UNIC), which tends to the needs of cinema trade associations and exhibitors across the old continent. “[What’s more] the numbers for the first quarter of 2023 have left everyone in a very good mood.”

Rotten Tomatoes.Both of those audience metrics are below what was received for “Black Adam,” a DC film that opened to $67 million domestic and $140 million worldwide last fall and which “The Flash” had long been expected to top. “Black Adam” grossed just $393 million against a $200 million budget before marketing costs, and it is now likely that “Flash” will fall below that total from a similar if not higher budget.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Flash,” a superhero adventure starring Ezra Miller, emerged victorious over Pixar’s “Elemental” in a battle of the box office lightweights. This weekend’s two new releases were once expected to ignite the summer box office but instead entirely missed the mark, as “The Flash” stumbled with $55 million and “Elemental” collected just $29.5 million in their respective debuts. Both of those films fell short of already-low expectations. And worse, they were pricy endeavors, costing $200 million to make and roughly $100 million to market, so they are shaping up to be huge disappointments in their theatrical runs. In the lead-up to “The Flash,” executives at Warner Bros. worked hard to convince the public that the film is “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Directed by Andy Muschietti, the story picks up as Miller’s Barry Allen a.k.a The Flash travels back in time to prevent his mother’s murder and inadvertently cracks open the DC multiverse. (Cameos abound!) But its tepid “B” CinemaScore from opening weekend crowds suggests that the moviegoing masses didn’t entirely agree with the lavish praise bestowed on the film by the people who made it. Without positive audience scores or strong word-of-mouth, “The Flash” will struggle to rebound in the coming weeks, especially as summer season heats up with the release of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on June 30, “Mission: Impossible 7” on July 12 and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on July 21.

The Post noted in a review that called the flick “solidly entertaining.”The film is tracking to open in the $70 million range over the long Father’s Day and Juneteenth weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Next in line was Pixar’s new animated adventure film “Elemental,” which grossed $11.8 million in its opening night on Friday. It could end up being Pixar’s lowest debut, wrote the blog Slashfilm.The family flick is set in a New York-esque metropolis inhabited by anthropomorphic wind, water, fire and Earth citizens, and is sweet but underwhelming, said The Post.“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” took third in the box office, raking in $8.1 million.

J. Kim Murphy Nine years after it was first announced, “The Flash” has finally dashed into theaters, speeding toward a debut ahead of the box office competition. But the DC Studios film isn’t exactly matching the lightning pace of its superhero. The Warner Bros. release got started with $24.5 million on opening day, which includes $9.7 million in Thursday previews. That’s enough to set the Ezra Miller film on a surefire pathway to a No. 1 debut on domestic charts, but it’ll be tough for the film to match its projections heading into the weekend — some bullish ones predicting a four-day bow as high as $85 million through the Juneteenth holiday.

on Rotten Tomatoes) and little being sold beyond “Hey, it’s the next Pixar film!”), the Peter Sohn-directed flick could struggle to match the $29 million Fri-Sun debut (amid a $39 million Wed-Sun launch) of “Toy Story” back in 1995, let alone the over/under $39 million Fri-Sun debuts of “The Good Dinosaur” in 2015 and “Onward” (which opened a week before COVID shut down the world) in 2020.Just running the numbers, if “Elemental” legs over the weekend like “Lightyear” ($51 million from a $5.2 million Thursday), it’ll open with just $23.5 million by Sunday night. Being more optimistic, however unlikely, if “Elemental” legs like “Cars 3” ($53 million/$2.6 million), well, then it opens with $49 million and you can ignore the next few paragraphs of doom-n-gloom.Generally speaking, animated movies tend to make less of their money on Thursday night, since general audiences are more inclined to wait until the proper weekend to take their kids.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros./DC’s The Flashper box office sources is playing like a deeper universe superhero movie with around $9M in Thursday night previews which began at 3PM. While the pic’s critical score on Rotten Tomatoes has fallen to 67% fresh from 71% fresh, audiences are enjoying it more at 88%. That’s a good sign.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It was positioned as the first big blockbuster battle of summer. But this weekend’s showdown between “The Flash” and Pixar’s “Elemental” isn’t shaping up to be one for box office record books. Both of the mega-budgeted tentpoles are tracking for lackluster starts, with “The Flash,” starring Ezra Miller as the title DC superhero, targeting $70 million and “Elemental,” an animated adventure about opposites who attract, aiming to collect just $35 million. Insiders and analysts are split on the final weekend number for “The Flash,” with some expecting an even softer $68 million and others projecting as much as $85 million. “The Flash” is landing on the big screen without a traditional promotional push from Miller, who has been a controversial figure in the lead-up to the film’s release. The actor, who was arrested several times in the past few years, released a statement in August to apologize for their behavior and say they were in treatment for “complex mental health issues.” Miller attended the premiere of “The Flash” on Monday, marking their first public appearance in two years, but stopped short of engaging with the press.

Ezra Miller has appeared at their first red carpet event since being involved in a string of controversies in the US.