The Flash and Elemental track for underwhelming box office openings

The box office predictions for some of the summer’s big-name movies have interestingly been tracking to be lower than one would assume. It was reported that Harrison Ford’s return to the adventure forefront with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was expected to rake in only $60-$70 million for its opening weekend in the Fourth of July weekend — a prime movie-going occasion. Analysts are presently tracking low numbers for Michael Keaton’s iconic return as well with The Flash as well as an original IP with Disney-Pixar’s newest outing, Elemental.

According to Variety, these two titles, both of which come from popular genres and studios, are predicted to open to a soft weekend debut. The Flash is tracking for a $70 million opening, which is rather low for a superhero tentpole movie with a lot of hype behind it, and Elemental, which is being released by the usually reliable Pixar, is aiming to hit around $35 million. The Disney animation film is also not based on any previous franchise that could attract audiences on name alone. Additionally, Variety states that “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, despite being a popular superhero with a rich legacy, had undergone an untraditional promotional process. Its star Ezra Miller is not appearing for the press at all to promote the movie due to the star’s tumultuous public behavior in recent years. The studio has been relying on a word-of-mouth approach where advanced screenings have produced such phrases as “greatest superhero movie ever made” with names outside the usual demographic praising it. The marketing had also re-focused the attention on the big screen return of Michael Keaton in the cultural-defining role from the cultural-defining movie Batman.

The small numbers for the movie from a juggernaut such as Pixar are comparable to the studio’s past underperforming titles like 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, which garnered $39 million, and 2020’s Onward, which also raised $39 million, although it’s important to note that Onward would be released in the year at the start of the pandemic. Pixar has been struggling as of late, whereas the studio never truly used pre-existing franchises as a crutch, except for maybe the Toy Story extended sequels. However, with both Disney+ and the pandemic altering the theatrical showing windows, the studio is currently not meeting its usual expectations.