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A #1 box office opening is usually good news. Not so The Flash<\/em>, the latest offering from the DC Universe, which made $55.1 million in its opening weekend, well below projections<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given the sequence of events, The Flash<\/em>\u2019s disappointing performance was soon blamed for layoffs at TCM<\/a>, a cable network that, like the DCU, is also under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Discovery. Crunching the numbers, box office watcher Luiz Fernando<\/strong> even determined that WBD would have lost less money on The Flash<\/em><\/a> had it released it on the company\u2019s streaming platform MAX\u2026or just canceled its release entirely, as it infamously did with Batgirl<\/em> last year<\/a>. The movie\u2019s dismal revenues are being attributed, in part, to a muted PR campaign. Given a litany of disturbing stories surrounding its star, Ezra Miller<\/strong> (about which V.F.<\/em>\u2019s Julie Miller<\/strong> reported last year<\/a>), they have not done any interviews to promote it. In light of all this, a Deadline story about a court lifting a protection order against Miller<\/a> actually qualifies as positive press for them.<\/p>\n As Marlow Stern<\/strong> first reported at The Daily Beast<\/a> last June, a then-unnamed Massachusetts woman was granted a temporary harassment prevention order against Miller on behalf of herself and her non-binary child, who was 12 at the time. This came just a week after the parents of Tokata Iron Eyes sought a similar order, then 18, who had first met Miller when Iron Eyes was 12, and Miller was 23; \u201cEzra uses violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions, and drugs to hold sway over a young adolescent Tokata,\u201d Iron Eyes\u2019s parents claimed. The relevant authorities couldn\u2019t find Miller to serve papers, about which Miller posted several mocking memes on their Instagram account before deleting it.<\/p>\n With regard to the Massachusetts case, the child\u2019s mother \u2014 who has since been identified as Shannon Guin<\/strong> \u2014 claimed that Miller, while armed with a gun, accused Guin of being a witch and a vampire, and paid a discomfiting amount of attention to the child, including physically.<\/p>\n Though the order<\/a> was to have expired Saturday, the Massachusetts court lifted it a day early, apparently finding convincing arguments by Miller\u2019s lawyer, Marissa Elkins<\/strong>, that Miller had never spent any time with the child during which other adults were not present, and that Guin\u2019s \u201cfalse allegations\u201d were filed as \u201cEzra was struggling with significant mental health issues, and was unable to come to court to defend themself against the spurious claims made by this individual.\u201d Additionally, no criminal charges had been filed in the matter, and Guin did not appear at Friday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n Last August, Miller apologized for the incidents involving Iron Eyes and Guin\u2019s child and several others noted in Miller\u2019s article, claiming \u201ccomplex mental health issues\u201d for which they had \u201cbegun ongoing treatment.\u201d Evidently, that was sufficient for Warner Bros. executives Michael De Luca<\/strong> and Pam Abdy<\/strong> to keep The Flash<\/em> on track. For whatever it\u2019s worth, The Flash<\/em>\u2019s director Andy Muschietti<\/strong> has said he wouldn\u2019t re-cast Miller<\/a> for a hypothetical sequel, but then again\u2026that may be because such a sequel is almost certainly never going to happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n