“The Flash” is racing ahead at the box office, picking up $9.7 million in previews at the box office.
The Warner Bros. film, starring Ezra Miller as the DC Comics speedster and helmed by “It” director Andy Muschietti, has endured a long and rocky road to theaters, but it’s finally opening this weekend. “The Flash” is projected to earn around $70 million in its first weekend, with some predictions as high as $85 million and others as low as $68 million.
That expected opening is in line with previous DC Studios projects like last year’s “Black Adam” and 2018’s “Aquaman,” which both debuted to $67 million — but Warner Bros. is surely hoping that “The Flash” takes more after his “Justice League” companion than Dwayne Johnson’s antihero. “Black Adam” stalled out with $168 million domestically and less than $400 million globally, while Jason Momoa’s “Aquaman” surfed to $335 million in North America and $1.14 billion worldwide. Without question, “The Flash” will perform better than March’s “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” which opened with $30 million and ended its domestic run with just $57 million. In terms of Thursday previews, “Black Adam” collected $7.6 million, “Aquaman” had $9 million and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” made $3.4 million.
In addition to Miller’s Scarlet Speedster, “The Flash” brings back Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s two versions of Batman. When Barry Allen, aka the the Flash, travels to a different dimension to prevent the death of his mother, he must team up with another version of himself, Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl to defeat Michael Shannon’s General Zod and save the multiverse.
In other releases this weekend, Pixar’s “Elemental,” about two water and fire beings who spark a relationship, is projected to make $35 million. It could land as one Pixar’s lowest openings, following 2015’s “The Good Dinosaur” and 2020’s “Onward, which both opened to $39 million. It picked up $2.4 million in previews. Lionsgate’s Black horror satire “The Blackening” is projected to open with $7.5 million, and it made $900,000 in previews.
