Supergirl lands in American theaters and its box-office kickoff does not bode well for DC and Warner Bros.
Last year, the new Superman hit theaters. The film directed by James Gunn racked up $354.2 million domestically and $618.7 million worldwide. With a production budget of $225 million, excluding marketing, it was a solid but not spectacular result. Alas, the follow-up in this DC reboot, Supergirl, may not deliver the same numbers.
Supergirl: A Box-Office Bomb on the Cards?
As it just opened in U.S. theaters, the Craig Gillespie-directed film already looks to be in trouble. According to Deadline, the feature is pulling in around $38 million during its domestic opening weekend across 3,602 theaters. That’s below Toy Story 5, which is believed to have grossed well over $70 million in its opening three days as it enters its second week.
It’s also well below the debut of Superman (125 million), but especially far behind the box-office disaster The Flash (55 million), The Marvels (46.1 million), Morbius (39 million) and only marginally above Birds of Prey (33 million). Given the notoriously rough track records of these titles, a flattering comparison would be hard to find:
- The Flash: production budget of $220 million for $271.4 million worldwide gross
- The Marvels: production budget of $274.8 million for $206.1 million worldwide
- Morbius: production budget of $75 million for $167.5 million worldwide
- Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn: production budget of $84.5 million for $205.4 million worldwide
For reference, Supergirl is said to have been produced for between $170 and $186 million (per Deadline), excluding marketing. Ending its run with roughly $200 million in worldwide grosses would thus count as a major miss. It’s also worth noting that American critics have not been kind to the film, with Milly Alcock scoring 49/100 on Metacritic and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. All this does not look promising. But before counting the project out, let’s wait to see how it launches internationally and how these numbers evolve over time. Supergirl hits U.S. theaters this coming Wednesday, July 1.
