Welcome to my periodic weekly collection of quick takes and flashpoints from the news around town. Today: Who killed Flash, Disney’s mounting stack of headaches, streaming library fetishism, and the Force is with our trade reporters.
Flash-Test Dummies
Not since the Warren Commission has our nation devoted this sort of investigative firepower to unraveling a mystery as it has to explaining the disappointment of The Flash’s opening.
Was it Superhero Fatigue in the ballroom with the knife? Or Ezra Miller cowering in the conservatory with the candlestick? Or Zaslav Hype in the billiard room with the rope?
Was Flash a doomed corporate orphan? (“Its 2023 slate of DC films are now orphans in a moribund cinematic universe,” explains Variety). Or was the loss of Ezra Miller from the red carpet fatal? “The Flash will be a case study in what happens if you can’t have the main star doing publicity.” (Paul Dergarabedian/ L.A. Times) Which should be a warning to all to settle the strike now, or you’ve got more of this coming! “The studios, streamers, etc. may want to think twice before playing notorious hardball, as this is what happens when your cast isn’t available to promote a major motion picture.” (Deadline).
Or did Flash die from a CEO saying he liked it too much? You know, never discount all those fans who breathlessly await the words from… Hollywood execs. “In fact, Zaz and Gunn set the bar so high that fans of the recently disappointing DC franchise pounced rather than note the improvement over dreck like Black Adam. ‘Such an amateur move,’ one top film producer texted me last night. ‘[Zaz] doesn’t know any better, but Gunn should have.’” (Puck)
Or do we need to let it sink in that we might… deep breath… have a problem with Universes? “Perhaps most ominous for Warners, however, is the possibility that audiences are becoming blasé about cinematic universes altogether.” (Variety)
Or is it choose your own box office adventure? What’s your favorite bugaboo this month? #MeToo? The writers strike? CEO privilege? Plug that right into the Flash box office Mad Libs explanation of your choice.
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