Box office shock: Spidey and ‘Elemental’ outsell ‘The Flash’ on Wednesday

In a midweek upset, Sony’s suspension Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse and the new cartoon from Pixar Elementary eliminated Warner Bros.’ DC superhero tentacle The flash at the Wednesday box office.

Both The flash AND Elementary opened on the weekend of June 16-18 with decidedly disappointing results. The former started with $55 million for the three days, well below expectations and significantly below the $67 million raised by fellow DC pic Black Adam last year (Black Adamplayed by Dwayne Johnson, was considered a major disappointment).

The flash was one of the most hyped titles on the 2023 summer release calendar, if not the year, despite star Ezra Miller’s personal woes and multiple arrests in 2022. All indications pointed to The flash opening to $100 million or more domestically when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took the stage in late April at CinemaCon, triumphantly telling theater owners that it was the best superhero movie he’d ever seen.

Yet the picture was rejected by a large swath of audiences on its opening weekend even as it took first place, earning a mediocre B CinemaScore and similarly tepid release ratings on PostTrak.

Elementary opened to an even worse $29.6 million, the lowest three-day start in Pixar history when adjusting for 1995 results History of the toy for inflation. The Silver Lining: Elementary boasts a CinemaScore A and strong PostTrak outputs, helping to explain why it beat The flash Wednesday with $3.5 million versus $3.1 million.

The animated sequel Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Versenow in its third week, it won overall Wednesday with $3.8 million for a heroic domestic haul north of $294 million.

The flash ended Wednesday with a six-day domestic cume of $69.5 million; AND Elementary$43.4 million.

All eyes will be on The flash to see if he can recapture his No. 1 standing Thursday on his way to winning the June 23-25 ​​box office race, or if ElementaryThe more positive word of mouth makes for a tight race.

Sony has two tasks this weekend, between Spidey and Jennifer Lawrence’s new R-rated Without hard feelings, which is about to open for $10 million to $12 million. The actress stars opposite Andrew Barth Feldman in the film, which is the first in a string of raunchy summer comedies hoping to revive the box-office troubled genre (no easy task).

The other new national offering is that of Wes Anderson City of Asteroidswhich is expanding across the country after garnering the best location average at the specialty box office ever since La La Land in 2016. The Focus Features release is hoping for a debut in the $5 million range.