The Flash's opening weekend was disappointing. It grossed only $55m domestically, despite a budget of $200m. In the second week after its release, The Flash has dropped even further. This movie, and Warner Brothers' parent company, is in a bad way these days. I was more than a bit Schadenfreude. They are on course to lose hundreds and millions of dollars. Was it better for the studio to release the film on "Just Max" instead of releasing the movie at all or releasing the movie after the second weekend? Come along with me to learn how bad this movie did on its second weekend. Thanks to Coming Soon.

Warner Bros. may lose $200 million on The Flash at the end its box office run.

The premiere of the new DC superhero film starring Ezra Miller in the role of Barry Allen/The Flash, and Michael Keaton in the role Bruce Wayne/Batman took place on Friday. It grossed a disappointing $55 million in its first weekend at the domestic box offices. Its second weekend saw a 72% drop to just $15.3 million. Some pundits have already predicted that this movie will be a bomb at the box office.

Luiz Fernando estimates that the film will earn between $280 and 310 million worldwide during its theatrical run. The Flash has a $200-210 million budget for production, $150 million spent on marketing and studios do not take the entire box office revenue. This means that Warner Bros. may lose up to $200 million. Fernando thinks they would have lost less by releasing the film on Max, or even not releasing the movie at all.

From Coming Soon

As they say, we were all aware. I'll never understand why WB released this movie while canceling Batgirl. Ezra Miller has had a heinous behavior for years. David Zaslav's failure to see the signs of the times after Miller had been on a crime-spree for several months, resulting in felony burglary and restraining order charges... just goes to show what a bad manager Zaslav is. Just in case anyone was still unsure. Combination of fatigue from superheroes and the multiverse, as well as overexposure to the character (The Flash television show was on CW for years!) And a star with a serious problem? This is definitely box office poison. These jokers asked it the moment they put their bottom line above whatever crime their star committed.

As a middle school band that I loved used to say, betting on a dead horse would be worse than beating it. Warner Brothers made the same mistake. What did they get when they bet on a sure-fire failure? The sunken cost fallacy can be very difficult to overcome psychologically. But if ever there was a time for cutting one's losses it would have been with this film. Leslie Grace is a beautiful young woman, according to all reports. Batgirl cost around $90 million, before marketing. I'm no math genius, however some quick calculations show that it would be much easier to earn back $90 million in box office revenue than $200 million from a disgraced celebrity.

Photo credit Avalon.red for photos taken via Instagram/WB.