Supergirl arrived in theaters last week, and while critics praised lead actor Milly Alcock’s performance as the titular hero, the film has overall received mixed reviews. So it’s not super (sorry) surprising that the movie didn’t take off at the box office during its opening weekend, but when you compare its box office numbers to some of the worst in superhero cinema, it’s actually kind of alarming.
In its first weekend, Supergirl debuted at number 2 on the box office charts with $38 million domestically, which didn’t even come close to Toy Story 5‘s first place finish of $70 million in its second week. That leaves James Gunn’s latest comic book move with a lower opening than any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and, tragically enough, below even Morbius, Sony’s 2022 Spider-Man spin-off starring Jared Leto that quickly became the laughing stock of superhero movies. When that cinematic disaster premiered in 2022, it had a $39 million debut. Supergirl also tracks behind Joker: Folie à Deux, which was another DC Comics movie that critics didn’t care for and audiences didn’t show up to see. It brought in $40 million domestically when it debuted. That’s rough.
Is Supergirl as bad as those movies? Probably not. It’s got some questionable decisions and pacing, but I wouldn’t put it on a list of worst superhero movies of all time. Despite this, DC Studios co-chairman and co-chief Peter Safran tells the New York Times (thanks, GamesRadar) that this hasn’t thrown plans for Gunn’s wider slate of DC Universe films off course. Even after the drop off from 2025’s Superman movie, which earned $125 million domestically in its opening weekend, the DCU is still moving forward.
“While Supergirl didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in,” Safran said.
The domestic numbers aren’t great, but they’re not the entire picture. Supergirl made another $30 million internationally, bringing its full total to around $68 million in the first weekend. However, it’s unclear if it will break even by the end of its theatrical run, as its budget is reportedly somewhere between $170 million to $186 million. So it’s got a long way to go to hit that number.
Supergirl is the second movie in the Gunn-led DC Universe following last year’s Superman. The next film in the series will be a body horror Clayface movie coming to theaters in October, followed by a Superman sequel in 2027.
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