The Supergirl movie opened so poorly at the box office that it already looks like a colossal flop. And the studio has had to own it.
Pretty much everyone asked the same question when the project was announced in 2023: who wants to see a Supergirl movie? Launching a new DC Extended Universe with yet another version of Superman, after the DCEU’s spectacular failure, seemed sensible. But following it up with his cousin, a character forever linked to cinema’s misfire with the 1984 Supergirl disaster, wasn’t obvious at all.
Appearing in a scene from Superman, the superheroine played by Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) ends up headlining her own blockbuster, barely a year after the release of her famous cousin’s film. And after months of doubts, behind-the-scenes chatter (multiple cut versions), and not-sorely reassuring signs (the composer Ramin Djawadi was replaced by Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL, who was replaced again by Claudia Sarne), Supergirl crashed on opening weekend. And even if the saga is just getting started, since the film lands in US theaters now, the die is cast. In France, it hits theaters this Wednesday, July 1.
SUPERGIRL TAKES A SUPER-PLUNGE AT THE BOX OFFICE
No matter how you slice it, the numbers are dire. In North America, where a film draws the most from cinema receipts, Supergirl opened in second place with $38 million across more than 3,600 screens. A showing that places the movie among the worst openings of its kind:
- The New Mutants (7 million)
- Kraven the Hunter (11 million)
- Madame Web (15 million)
- Wonder Woman 1984 (16 million… during Covid)
- Blue Beetle (25 million)
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods (30 million)
- X‑Men: Dark Phoenix (32 million)
- Birds of Prey (33 million)
- Joker: Folie à deux (37 million)
- Supergirl (38 million)
- Morbius (39 million)
- The Marvels (46 million)
- The Flash (55 million)
Elsewhere, Supergirl didn’t spark much interest either, adding another $30 million for a worldwide debut of around $68 million. It’s still bad. By comparison, that total is less than Birds of Prey’s $81 million, Joker: Folie à deux’s $114 million, The Marvels’s $110 million, or X‑Men: Dark Phoenix’s $140 million.
Of course, the blockbuster’s story is far from over. But with numbers like these, and knowing that almost all films lose momentum after the second weekend, the outlook is bleak. Especially given the tepid reviews and equally mixed audience reactions that hint there won’t be much positive word-of-mouth. And there’s no reason to expect China to save the day; in fact, Supergirl flopped there as well, opening roughly on par with Madame Web.
If there are any silver linings, Supergirl benefited from Premium Large Format (PLF) showings—think IMAX, 4DX, and similar formats. According to Deadline, more than half of the tickets came from these premium formats, which are pricier and inflate box-office tallies—a factor that makes the audience numbers look a touch rosier than they would otherwise. About 20% of tickets came from IMAX, and that’s reportedly huge for a superhero movie.
Another reason to slightly soften the blow: Supergirl “only” cost $170–186 million. It’s a relatively low-to-mid range budget for this type of film, even if the marketing spend here is evidently enormous.
- Birds of Prey (around $80 million)
- Madame Web (80 million)
- Wonder Woman ($150 million)
- Supergirl ($170–186 million)
- Suicide Squad ($175 million)
- The Suicide Squad ($185 million)
- The Batman (roughly $185–$200 million)
- Aquaman ($200 million)
- Wonder Woman 1984 ($200 million)
- Joker: Folie à deux ($200 million)
- X‑Men: Dark Phoenix ($200 million)
- Aquaman 2 (between $200–$215 million, per sources)
- Black Adam (between $200–$260 million, per sources)
- Man of Steel (between $225–$250 million, per sources)
- The Flash (between $200–$300 million, per sources)
- Superman ( $225 million)
- Batman v Superman (between $250–$300 million, per sources)
NO PANIC AT DC, APPARENTLY
Given the situation, there’s no denying the failure. And for once, it’s DC Studios co-president Peter Safran who spoke up, not James Gunn. He told The New York Times:
“Even though Supergirl didn’t meet our box-office expectations, it’s only one piece of a broader, long-term strategy for DC Studios, and we remain fully confident in that plan.”
On the surface, they don’t panic. But nobody’s fooling themselves: you don’t usually see a studio chief acknowledge a film’s failure as it lands in theaters. In 2024, Superman, the first blockbuster of this new DCU, written and directed by James Gunn himself, was a success that many tried to temper. With a production budget of around $225 million (excluding marketing) and a global box-office total of $618 million, it still trailed Justice League’s $661 million (2017), Man of Steel’s $670 million (2013), Suicide Squad’s $749 million (2016), Wonder Woman’s $823 million (2017), Batman v Superman’s $874 million (2016), or Aquaman’s $1 billion (2018).
That Supergirl flop is now, as they say, set to weigh on the DCU’s immediate plans. Sure, this is only the beginning—two films released so far—but no studio wants to deal with the fallout of a major commercial misfire barely a year after unveiling a fanfare, cinematic universe.
The DCEU, as pitched by Zack Snyder, had already run into backstage issues by the time Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad rolled around, though the box-office numbers were never in doubt. On the flip side, Marvel spent about a decade building momentum before fatigue started to creep in, followed by high-profile flops tied to the pandemic, then the misfires of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and later Thunderbolts.
NEXT UP FOR THE DCU IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL
The next DCU feature, Clayface, lands in theaters on October 21, 2026, and it’s a standalone title: centered on a Batman foe, marketed as a horror film, it reportedly cost only $40 million, less than the first Joker. With a bit of talent and luck, it could remind audiences that superhero worlds don’t need enormous budgets to exist. But the real next test for the universe remains the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, due in theaters on July 7, 2027. If that one also falters, there’s little room to hide the growing panic.
