The Flash director Andy Muschietti has defended his DC Extended Universe box office bomb, insisting people “like to talk s***” about films they haven’t seen.
2023 superhero movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, was a critical and commercial flop, pulling in just $271 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Both it and the entire DCEU are now defunct too, with James Gunn spearheading a rebooted DCU.
But in a new interview with The Playlist to promote IT prequel series Welcome To Derry, Muschietti insisted The Flash was a good movie, and some of the criticism it suffered came from people who hadn’t even seen it.
“A lot of people did not see it,” he said. “But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*** about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.”
Muschietti then acknowledged the impact of Ezra Miller’s off-screen controversies on the movie. “Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable,” he said. “And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.”
He continued: “And again, we love the movie. We, you know, we gave it our blood, sweat, and tears all the way to the end. And I watched it, like a week ago, and loved it again.”
Muschietti said the film failed to appeal to "the four quadrants" — a movie industry term meaning to appeal to everyone — enough to justify its $200 million budget.
"The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that," Muschietti said. "When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.
"I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned."
The four quadrants, as defined by Hollywood, are males under 25, males over 25, females under 25, and females over 25.
Muschietti's mention of "all the other reasons" The Flash failed likely refer to its poor critical reception, criticism of its reliance on computer generated imagery (CGI) including to recreate deceased actors without consulting their family, its placement towards the end of a now defunct film universe, and the controversy surrounding Ezra Miller.
This seemingly hasn't stopped DC from keeping Muschietti around, however, as he is reportedly set to direct The Brave and the Bold, the first Batman film in James Gunn and Peter Safran's new DC Universe.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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