The Flash is hitting the blockchain, whatever that means

The Flash, despite some almighty hype, is not a success story. In fact, it’s an explicit failure, with some experts speculating that the film might lose Warner Bros. Pictures up to $200 million. Given all the drama that surrounded DC Studios in general and this film specifically leading up to the release, it’s clear The Flash missed its moment. And speaking of missed moments, The Flash is going to be released as an NFT. This will mark “the first new release feature film from a major Hollywood film studio to be released on blockchain.”

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So what does that mean exactly? That’s such a good question. To the blockchain novice—which this writer may or may not be—The Flash NFT looks a bit like a movie metaverse (à la the Us and Nope metaverse experiences launched last year) but sounds essentially like the Special Features section of a DVD. Except in this case, each copy of the movie and its special features are just a little bit different, and instead of putting the film into a DVD player or having it saved to your hard drive, it’s hosted on Eluvio’s blockchain. Is this making sense?

It is hard to imagine a film that flopped as hard as The Flash having fans so dedicated they want to invest in NFTs of the film and its bonus content, but it is “a chance for DC fans to own a piece of motion picture history,” per Michelle Munson, the CEO and co-founder of Eluvio (via Decrypt). It’s not too expensive to own a piece of history, if that’s what we’re agreeing it is (it’s certainly a thing that is happening). There are two editions of The Flash NFT: The Mystery edition, of which there are 10,000 copies, is $35. The Premium edition, of which there are 2,000 copies, is $100.

There are a bunch of special little treats for Flash fans in each edition, including pieces of key art of characters and those metaverse-esque locations (“dynamic menu interfaces”). Based on the trailer posted to Twitter, the latter looks like a classic point and click game, wherein you click around and find “hidden collectibles” like “exclusive 2D digital cards” or “3D models” and “unbelievable AR experiences.” (This one looks like a bunch of bats flying around your phone, not unlike a TikTok filter. Pretty believable, if you ask this novice, but what do I know.) There’s also regular Special Features stuff (“hours” of it, apparently) like deleted scenes, for those who just can’t get enough Flash. Then of course there’s the actual film in 4K Ultra HD.

That’s what counts for cinema history these days, apparently: a historic flop of a film getting in on a crypto fad long after the getting was good. From a certain angle, it’s a marriage that makes complete sense. From other angles, particularly if you don’t understand NFTs, it doesn’t make any sense at all. Life sure is funny that way!

The Flash is hitting the blockchain on July 18.