The Fastest Man Alive wasn’t a runaway hit with audiences — especially women. That’s according to The Flash director Andy Muschietti, who says in a new interview that his DC film flopped in part because it failed to draw an audience of all four quadrants: older men, older women, younger men, and younger women. The antepenultimate chapter of the DC Extended Universe (since relaunched as the new DC Universe), which starred Ezra Miller as the titular scarlet speedster Barry Allen opposite Michael Keaton’s Batman, ended its nine-week run in theaters with just $266 million at the global box office when it opened in the summer of 2023.

“The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that,” Muschietti told Radio Tu’s “La Baulera del Coso” show. “When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.”

According to Comscore PostTrak exit polling, which reports audience demographics, The Flash‘s first Thursday night screenings pulled in 47% men over 25, 29% men under 25, and 17% women over 25 and just 7% women under 25 (per Deadline). The film went on to receive a B CinemaScore from opening night moviegoers and a 77% from PostTrak exits, with 59% of audiences giving it a “recommend.”

In an opening weekend postmortem, Deadline reported that the “male-heavy” Flash failed to pull in as many women as 2017’s Wonder Woman — the first female-led movie from DC Films — or 2018’s billion-grossing Aquaman, starring a frequently shirtless Jason Momoa in the title role. (Compared to The Flash‘s 17% from women over 25 and 7% from women under 25, Aquaman received 84% approval from the female 25-plus demographic, and it was more popular with moms than dads at 91% approval versus 85%.)

“I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character,” Muschietti told La Baulera del Coso. “Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned.”

While The Flash placed first in its opening weekend with $55 million, pulling ahead of Pixar’s animated Elemental ($29.6 million), it dropped to third place in its second weekend with $15.1 million (behind the leggy Elemental‘s $18.4 million) as Sony’s animated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swung back to No. 1 in its fourth weekend. Flash‘s second weekend was just a hair above the female-skewing No Hard Feelings, the R-rated Jennifer Lawrence comedy that opened in fourth place with $15 million. By its second weekend, the Sony comedy’s $7.8 million outpaced The Flash‘s $5.2 million — a 65% plunge in its third week in theaters — and Flash fell behind Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid in its sixth week.

In addition to the many controversies of its embattled lead actor, who previously appeared as Barry Allen in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016’s Suicide Squad, and 2017’s Justice League, The Flash failed in part because of its barely-fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes (63%) and B CinemaScore — at the time tied with Batman v Superman as the worst for the DCEU, lower than 2016’s Suicide Squad (B+), 2017’s Justice League (B+), and other divisive installments like 2020’s Birds of Prey (B+), 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984 (B+), and fellow 2023 bomb Shazam! Fury of the Gods (B+).

Last month, when DC Studios co-chief James Gunn was asked why a Clayface movie was greenlit over a “more prominent” character like the Flash, Gunn wrote on Threads that DC Studios is “holding a beat on development” on a potential Flash project set in the DCU.

Meanwhile, Muschietti is attached to direct The Brave and the Bold, which will introduce the DCU Batman and Robin, and Max’s animated Creature Commandos featured cameos by the Flash villain Gorilla Grodd. (The Flash also appeared, albeit briefly, in a vision of a since-averted post-apocalyptic future alongside Batman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and more superheroes who are confirmed to exist in the DCU.)

DC Studios’ Superman, written and directed by Gunn, will officially launch the new DCU when it soars into theaters on July 11. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow will follow on June 26, 2026, with Clayface set for Sept. 11, 2026. Also in the works are Peacemaker season 2 (TBA 2025), HBO’s Lanterns, a second season of Creature Commandos, and Muschietti’s The Brave and the Bold, which isn’t expected until after The Batman: Part II opens in late 2027.