Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, DSR has aggregated reports of major bombshells regarding Supergirl’s post-production issues, the second weekend box office results for the film is quite embarrassing for the upstart DCU franchise.
The film, starring Milly Alcock, entered the second weekend with a very dismal $9.4 million this weekend in North America. An estimated 74.1% percent drop from the $36 million opening from its first weekend. On top of that, international sales from 78 markets crashed and burned with only $9.5 million. The verdict is official: the audience have truly rejected the film.
The movie is divisive among the fanbase for various reasons. Although it’s not quite 2024’s Madame Web, the movie hasn’t been received well. There were some good moments. Alcock gave a solid performance as Kara, while Jason Momoa was was born to play Lobo. David Cornswet continued to build off his performance as Superman from the first DCU film of the character’s name. Other than that, the story was weak, the pacing was really rough half the time and the song choice during the third-act action finale, a slow version of Jimmy Eat World's The Middle, drained the final battle and it felt very out of place.
Another big failure for the film was the release date. The movie opened between Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters. Animated films that received positive response from audiences and critics. The former is cleaning up the box office and currently on track to make $1 billion worldwide on a $275 budget, while the latter, although had a soft open at $36 million three day and $60 million five day weekend in North America, it’s possible the film with turn a small profit based on its $85 million production budget.
Sure, there are possible reasons on why the film failed spectacularly badly. There was the unfortunate criticism of Alcock’s physical appearance from social media trolls and right wing media critics, the ever-growing backlash against James Gunn due to his influence on superhero films seems to be getting very tiring with the general public adding onto the controversial post-production on the movie, Zack Snyder’s superfans boycotting the DCU reboot because of the way the old film universe was canceled publicly, and “superhero fatigue” myth due to audiences feel the genre is getting over exposed in recent years.
The film has made just over $100M on a ~$175M budget, which puts its breakeven point at around $450M.
The fact of the matter: it’s not a very good sign for James Gunn’s future co-running DC Studios when his contract is up in early 2027 after the Paramount/Warner is completed. His extension and the future of the franchise will be up to new studio CEO David Ellison depending on the financial success of the next two DCU features. Ellison has noted publicly that he is a fan of Gunn and wants to keep him on, but there’s no guarantee, especially if Ellison is simply posturing to keep talent happy during the merger.
DC’s next film, Clayface, may turn a profit in the fall since it’s only a $40 million production. Horror is absolutely on fire in theatres right now at the box office. Meanwhile Man of Tomorrow, the sequel to Superman, is a true test for the DCU’s future with its final theatre gross next summer.
Photo credit: DC Studios.