‘The Flash’ Disappoints With $55 Million Debut, Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ Flops With $29.5 Million in Battle of Box Office Lightweights

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.

Tom Cruise is showing off his support for all the major movies coming out this summer in theaters.

savior of movie theaters, would love it if you bought a ticket next month to see “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning.” But he’d also love it if you went out to see the other films that will be competing against it in theaters this summer, too. On Wednesday, Cruise posted a picture of him with “Mission: Impossible 7” director Christopher McQuarrie holding tickets to see “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which comes out on Friday, as well as Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” which come out the week after “Mission: Impossible 7”“This summer is full of amazing movies to see in theaters,” Cruise tweeted.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is gunning for the top spot on box office charts. The fifth and final adventure to star Harrison Ford as the legendary, globe-trotting explorer is targeting at least $65 million from 4,500 North American theaters in its opening weekend. The latest Indy installment is also debuting day-and-date at the international box office, where it’s aiming to add $80 million for a global start of $145 million to $150 million. Those ticket sales are decent, especially for the fourth sequel to a decades-old property that’s aimed at older audiences. But Disney spent a mind-boggling $295 million to bring the action-adventure to life. That’s not including marketing costs, such as a no-expense-spared premiere and afterparty at the Cannes Film Festival where much champagne was tippled. Even in the best circumstances, it’ll take a heroic feat — and a lot of nostalgia from long-time fans of the series — for “Indiana Jones 5” to turn a profit in its theatrical run.

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.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter At the end of last summer, Flix Brewhouse faced a dire situation, albeit one that wasn’t unique to the Texas-based movie theater chain. There weren’t any movies to show in August. “We were going to A24 or Briarcliff Entertainment saying, ‘Does anyone have anything we can put on our screens?” recalls Chris Randleman, the company’s chief revenue officer. That’s not the case this summer as exhibitors grapple with a different reality. Can several back-to-back blockbusters succeed at once? Or will the glut of big movies cannibalize each other? Those are the big questions as popcorn season kicks into high gear with the arrivals of Harrison Ford’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (June 30), Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (July 12), Greta Gerwig’s neon-coated “Barbie” (July 21) and Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer” (also on July 21). All of those films carry big budgets and require outsized ticket sales to turn a profit.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese mystery drama “Lost in the Stars” was the top-grossing film on the planet over the latest weekend – despite playing only a single territory. The film earned $70.7 million (RMB502 million) between Friday and Sunday in mainland China, according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That put it far and away ahead of other Chinese new releases and Hollywood’s holdovers “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “The Flash.” With the Dragon Boat Festival holiday occurring on Thursday, the film was given an unusual one-day advance on the normal releasing pattern in China. Including Thursday takings, the film made a total of $98.3 million (RMB968 million).

J. Kim Murphy “No Hard Feelings” came out on top of the domestic box office on its opening day, bedding $6.25 million in Friday and Thursday preview screenings from 3,208 venues. Meanwhile, the top spot for the weekend is a battle between animated adventures; both “Elemental” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” are staying above “The Flash,” which looks to be collapsing in its second outing. Heading into the weekend, “No Hard Feelings” was projected to launch with a mild $12 million. The raunchy R-rated Jennifer Lawrence vehicle is already outrunning those estimates, now forecasting a debut of $15 million or so. “No Hard Feelings” may lose pace to holdovers as the weekend unfolds, but box-office-king-for-a-day is certainly a higher honor than most studio comedies have achieved of late. The once-prolific genre has fallen far from theatrical relevance in recent years, with the past few months containing an expansive slate of box office disappointments and failures, from “The Machine” to “Easter Sunday” to “Bros.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Can an R-rated comedy that draws big laughs still bring in outsized ticket sales at the box office? Jennifer Lawrence’s “No Hard Feelings” will put that question to the test as the raunchy funny film opens over the weekend in 3,000 North American theaters, where it’s expected to earn a tepid $12 million in its debut. That’s not a terrible result at a time in which theatrical comedies, especially of the R-rated variety, have become something of endangered species. But it also wouldn’t be a great start considering its star power, $45 million budget and prime June release date. Earlier this year, Universal’s wild R-rated “Cocaine Bear” opened to $23.2 million — and (with all due respect to the drugged-up grizzly) that film wasn’t headlined by one of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Selome Hailu “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” is coming to a close. The teen musical comedy’s upcoming fourth season will be its last on Disney+. The met series is set at the high school where the original “High School Musical” movies were filmed and centers on a group of teenage musical theater lovers who decide to mount a production of “High School Musical.” In Season 4, which premieres on Aug. 9, the Wildcats return to East High after an epic summer at Camp Shallow Lake and prepare a stage production of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” But plans are disrupted when Principal Gutierrez announces that Disney has decided to make the long-awaited “High School Musical 4: The Reunion” movie on location at their beloved high school.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros.’s “The Flash” and Disney/Pixar’s “Elemental” made theatrical debuts in China that were in line with their soft starts in North America and other international territories. “The Flash” captured the top spot in China with a $13.4 million (RMB94.8 million) opening weekend ($13.8 million including previews), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. It deposed “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” which opened a week earlier and which slipped to second place in its sophomore frame. “Transformers” took a 69% fall and recorded $12.4 million between Friday and Sunday in China. That produces a $61.7 million cumulative after ten days in Chinese theaters.

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.

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.

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.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned this weekend, but chief among them, is what’s it like for a major motion picture studio to open a movie with largely a number of its cast, primarily its main star, not available to do press. That’s the big looming question which has been on everyone’s minds in the wake of Ezra Miller’s tabloid laden 2020-2022 in regards to Warner Bros. DC’s $200M The Flash, which isn’t looking good with a 3-day around $60M, off from the $70M-$75M the studio was expecting. The studio is still expecting the Juneteenth holiday to deliver and get the film to $70M over 4-days (if that’s the case, that’s the first time the Federal holiday, which has not proven itself to be a big moviegoing day yet, has yielded a daily gross for a movie north of $10M; last year Universal’s Jurassic World: Dominion made only $8.6M on the Juneteenth Monday holiday). The pic did $24.5M yesterday (which includes Thursday previews). Other studios see these figures lower. Given the $9.7M previews last night, at a glance, it looked like Flash had the potential to over-deliver and beat its weekend estimates, and that’s looking less likely now. Should the movie have gone straight to Warners streaming service Max? Absolutely not. They need to make as much money as they can, and that’s through windows.

The Flash” got off to a slow start in its domestic box office sprint, earning $9.7 million in Thursday previews. That’s barely more than the $8.9 million earned by “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” last weekend and only a bit more than the $7.5 million and $7.6 million earned by “Black Adam” and “Fast X” respectively in their Thursday preview runs.

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.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Joker” fans who are theorizing about the reported musical aspects of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel film finally have a little bit more clarity, thanks to star Zazie Beetz. “I think people will be surprised. I don’t think it’s going to be what they expect, around it being musical,” Beetz, who is reprising her role as Sophie Dumond for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” told Variety Monday at Chanel’s Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner in New York. “We all sort of express musically and dancing in our lives day-to-day. I think it’s going to work really well.” Todd Phillips returns to the director’s chair for the “Joker” sequel, which is rumored to take place prominently in Arkham Asylum.

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” stormed into theatres worldwide this weekend, amassing a staggering $110 million at the international box office. 

Rotten Tomatoes. “Rise of the Beasts” will need that audience buzz as it faces competition for the 18-34 demographic — which made up 54% of its opening day audience — from Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” next weekend.