It might sound harsh to use The Flash as the barometer of success that distinguishes between a success and a flop, but it’s hard not to when the movie touted as one of the greatest comic book adaptations in all of time and space landed with a dull thud after escaping a decade in development hell to go down as one of the biggest box office bombs of all-time.
By the time it limped out of theaters, the Scarlet Speedster’s long-awaited solo debut could only muster $268 million from theaters around the world, and it’s about to be passed by another effects-heavy extravaganza that’s statistically proven to be the worst blockbuster sequel 2023 has had to offer so far.
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 28 percent, Meg 2: The Trench is not a very good or particularly entertaining film, but it has already proven to be a highly successful one. Despite suffering a hefty drop-off on domestic shores, another robust weekend overseas has propelled Jason Statham’s giant shark adventure to a running tally of $257 million worldwide.
That means The Trench will have overtaken The Flash by this time on Tuesday at the very latest, and it even cost a hefty chunk of change less, with Ben Wheatley’s follow-up pegged at around $120 million. Seeing as a cumulative haul of $400 million isn’t entirely out of the question, you know what that means; Meg 3 has just taken a huge bite out of becoming a reality, and we’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves.