You see, the movies that screen in full are usually the ones the studios think will wow the theater owners the most, the ones that will make them see dollar signs as they envision throngs of people buying armloads of concessions and coming back for seconds.
The fact that the Warners are sending “The Flash” means they know they have a winner on their hands and one that theater owners will want to put on all their biggest screens for as long as possible. “The Flash” has a two-week run before “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” hits screens and this all but guarantees it’s going to dominate every big multiplex screen. Sorry, Pixar’s “Elemental.”
Of course, the movie has to deliver, but word on the street I’ve been hearing is that Andy Muschietti and his team knocked it out of the park. And I’d bet theater owners will see Michael Keaton’s Batman coming back as a huge draw and will hope audiences will fight for seats as they did with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which also was able to roll in that powerful one-two punch of audience nostalgia and current superhero popularity.
“The Flash” is a pivotal movie for the seismic shift coming to the DC film universe and comes with a lot of baggage, from the declining popularity of the DCEU to its star’s problematic behavior off-screen. There are a lot of eyes on this one and it looks like it’ll get its first real test on April 25.