The Flash Director Says Backlash, Not Quality, Killed a Good Movie

Andy Muschietti is proud of The Flash. Very proud. And in a new interview, he basically said the movie only tanked because people wanted it to. That take is going to rub some folks the wrong way, but let’s unpack what he said, why the film face-planted anyway, and how it fits into the larger DC mess.

What Muschietti actually said

Talking to The Playlist, the director called The Flash a good movie that got caught in a storm of bad vibes. He said he and his team moved on, stayed proud of the work, and chalked up the failure to an audience that never showed up but was happy to dunk on it anyway.

"A lot of people did not see it. But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*it about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons."

Is that the whole story? No. Is there a sliver of truth in there? Yeah.

The numbers were ugly

On a reported $200 million budget, The Flash pulled in about $271 million worldwide, according to The Numbers. That’s not profit. That’s not even close. And a movie that expensive needs real legs to break even. This one didn’t have ankles.

The Ezra Miller problem (and it was a problem)

Like it or not, the conversation around this movie was dominated by headlines about its star. Some of this predates their DC tenure, but it all landed in the public consciousness right before release:

• Box office/budget: $271 million worldwide on a $200 million budget (The Numbers)
• Rotten Tomatoes: 63% critics, 81% audience
• Director: Andy Muschietti
• Main cast: Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon

Now the part nobody in marketing could spin: in 2011, Miller was found in possession of marijuana. In 2020, a video surfaced of them grabbing a woman by the throat outside a bar in an incident described as a serious altercation (per Variety). Then 2022 hit like a brick: an Instagram video where Miller addressed the Ku Klux Klan and threatened a member of one of its chapters; charges for disorderly conduct and harassment; an arrest for second-degree assault; and a separate accusation that they groomed a young girl (People). Those headlines did not vanish by opening weekend. They followed the movie around like a fog.

And the movie itself? Not bulletproof

Even if you set the offscreen stuff aside, the on-screen execution didn’t win over the masses. The big, CG-heavy sequences were long and felt rickety compared to earlier DCEU high points. The core idea works on paper, but the plotting and overall storytelling never quite clicked, so a lot of fans walked out feeling shortchanged.

This wasn’t just a Flash problem — it was a DCEU problem

The Flash was supposed to be a late-stage lifeline for the DCEU. Instead, it became one of its biggest misses. Part of that goes back years. The franchise sprinted toward a Justice League team-up before it had properly built out its characters, which left a lot of key players thin on development. Then the production on 2017’s Justice League blew up: Zack Snyder exited, Joss Whedon took over, and the scramble to reshoot and rework the film led to quality-control and continuity issues all over the place. That theatrical version was widely dragged as one of the genre’s low points, even after Zack Snyder’s Justice League later landed better with fans. After enough stumbles like that, the DCEU’s future got murky fast — and eventually the whole continuity was scrapped in favor of a reset.

So, was Muschietti wrong?

Not entirely. There was a real pile-on factor with The Flash, and some people were never going to give it a chance. But the movie also didn’t give skeptics many reasons to flip. Between the offscreen controversies, the messy VFX, and a wobbly story, it felt like the end of a franchise that had been rushing and patching itself together for years. Pride in the work is understandable. The outcome is, too.