Oh boy. You got the sense coming off of Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods that DC was at a crossroads. And maybe, just maybe, The Flash was the movie to turn the tide. It seemed to have a lot going for it, but also a lot going against it—and when the film finally opened, the latter swallowed up the former. After what seemed like an effective promotional campaign, it was a huge financial failure.

Then, a few months later, despite solid buzz and great reviews, Blue Beetle came out and did okay, but not nearly as well as most would have hoped. It seems that James Gunn’s reboot of the DC Universe is coming at just the right time.