Ezra Miller's 'The Flash' Off to Slow Start at Box Office Despite Hype

Ezra Miller's "The Flash" has been getting hailed as the greatest comic book movie of all time -- but it seems audiences don't really care ... 'cause, so far, they're hardly going to see it.

The 1st-day box office numbers are in ... and they're not very hot. Between Thursday's previews and Friday's haul, "The Flash" has only grossed $24.5 million domestically -- which means this flick isn't even close to hitting the original estimates of $70 mil+.

At this point, 'Flash' is pegged to hit between $55-$59 million through the 3-day weekend -- which is a huge disappointment considering how much good word of mouth it'd generated. BTW, The Rock's "Black Adam" performed slightly better last year on opening day ... and that film was largely considered a flop big picture. With that in mind, this is truly a disaster.

You might've heard about the buzz over the past several months -- tons of screenings were held by Warner Bros., and some were walking away calling it one of the best DC installments to date. There was even an anecdote about Tom Cruise recently seeing it ... and calling the director to praise him and the film. Like we said, it's been the talk of the town for a while.

Despite all this favorable publicity -- outside of Ezra's personal scandals -- it would appear your average moviegoer doesn't give a rip ... but it's hard to say why at this point.

Some might attribute it to Ezra themself ... who's been mired in controversies for about 2 years now. It might also be the lack of a traditional press run the studio opted for -- there were hardly any interviews in the lead-up -- but others are pointing to James Gunn.

Of course, Gunn is at the helm of DC now ... and he's strongly suggested he's going to be rebooting the entire DCU, and sorta doing away with whatever Zack Snyder established.

"The Flash" is one of the last few leftovers pre-Gunn ... so, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't seem like anything that happens in this movie really matters -- seeing how JG is going to start from scratch anyway. In other words, little to no stakes seem to be at play.

It's gotta be a bummer for the studio heads who were hoping cameos and reprisals would drum up excitement for "The Flash." Remember, Michael Keaton came to play Batman again ... and there's been word of lots of other Batman actors making an appearance as well.

In the end, though ... it doesn't seem like people were all that into it. Plus, if you watch the movie itself (which we have) then you'll come to realize -- there's a lot of time-jumping and universe rebooting ... and it's somewhat hard to follow what the hell is really going on.

For instance, the final question of who's Batman gets teased (and left as a cliffhanger). If you thought it'd be Keaton, Ben Affleck, or even Christian Bale ... you're dead wrong.

!!!SPOILER ALERT ... WE'RE ABOUT TO SPOIL "THE FLASH" ... SO LOOK AWAY NOW!!!

Anyone 'memba this guy??? Yeah, he's back too ... but again, to what end is anyone's guess.