Where's the "people just don't go to theaters anymore" crowd to make excuses?
I'm surprised we haven't seen any spinmeisters trying to "explain" the movie flopping by attributing its awful box office results to 21st century viewing habits beyond its control.
They've been playing that same old tired song and dance the last 4 years or so EVERY time some big budget film with "high expectations" (Furiosa, The Little Mermaid remake, Indiana Jones 5, West Side Story remake, etc.) tanks at the box office. Oodles of apologists run on social media to swear up and down that the movie's failure had NOTHING to do with the quality of film itself and audiences disliking it, and everything to do with external factors like Covid, people being "scared" of seeing it on the big screen, audiences opting to "just wait a few months to catch it on streaming" as the reason why the seats are empty.
Of course, these apologists are nowhere to be seen when a movie smashes box office records in an era when people supposedly "just aren't going to theaters anymore" (Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home, etc.) but they quickly materialize again whenever some sucky movie flops a few months later, and they need a scapegoat to blame rather than admit the movie itself is flawed.
You guys just occupied with something else this time, or is the studio no longer paying you guys to punt the blame?