Supergirl falters at the North American box office, testing DC Studios’ reboot

[LOS ANGELES] It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s... ker-thud.

In a setback for Warner Bros and its DC Studios division, Supergirl arrived to weak ticket sales over the weekend.

The movie, which cost US$170 million to make and tens of millions more to market, was on pace to take in about US$38 million from Thursday (Jun 25) through Sunday at theatres in the US and Canada – about 24 per cent below pre-release analyst projections of US$50 million that had already been considered disappointing. It took in an additional US$30 million overseas.

The film received a “rotten” rating from review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Ticket buyers were similarly unimpressed, giving Supergirl a B-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls.

Audiences have become much more selective about superhero movies since the genre’s heyday in the 2010s. In 2022, Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson, arrived to a disappointing US$67 million in opening-weekend ticket sales, while Morbius, with Jared Leto in the main role, had a disastrous US$39 million debut.

Still, box office analysts on Sunday noted an uncomfortable truth: Female-led superhero movies have been rejected almost uniformly over the past five years or so, perhaps reflecting a resurgent misogyny among the core fan base, which is largely male.

Before its release, Supergirl became caught up in a now-familiar cycle of online abuse, with some fanboys attacking Milly Alcock’s casting and appearance. Warner Bros executives said that they were surprised by both the ferocity of the backlash and its reach, believing the culture had evolved past that sort of campaign.

“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,” Peter Safran, co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios, said.

Hollywood has been having its best summer at the box office since the Covid-19 pandemic threatened to permanently alter moviegoing habits, and the broader recovery continued over the weekend even as Supergirl faltered.

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Theatres in the US and Canada were expected to sell about US$153.5 million in tickets in total, up 18 per cent from the same weekend last year, according to Rentrak, which compiles box office data.

Toy Story 5 (Disney-Pixar) was the No 1 movie in North America for the second weekend, collecting an estimated US$70 million, for a new domestic total of US$297 million and a worldwide total of US$585 million. Supergirl was second. The horror-themed Obsession (Focus Features) was third in its seventh weekend in theatres with roughly US$10 million in ticket sales, lifting its domestic total to US$234 million and about US$370 million worldwide.

Jackass: Best and Last (Paramount) debuted in fourth place with about US$8.4 million. The sequel, which repackaged old footage from the franchise with some newly shot scenes, cost only about US$10 million to make, however. Paramount hastily assembled it as part of its public commitment to release 15 movies this year, up from eight in 2025.

After a promising debut three weeks ago, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day slowed to fifth place. It made about US$8 million, for a new domestic total of US$94 million (US$193 million worldwide).

Despite a megawatt marketing campaign – Warner Bros lined up 80 promotional partners, including Kentucky Fried Chicken and American Airlines – Supergirl failed to give the studio what it most needed: evidence that, after years of setbacks, it had finally found a path back to sustained theatrical success for DC Studios. The latest overhaul, announced in 2023 under James Gunn and Safran, promised a script-first approach that would give priority to quality over volume.

Their first effort, a reboot of the Superman franchise, was a success. Released last summer, Superman generated US$619 million in global ticket sales. It also received strong reviews.

Supergirl, directed by Craig Gillespie, was meant to add a second pillar. Another Superman instalment, this one titled Man of Tomorrow, is scheduled for release next summer.

“Audiences turned on female superheroes during the pandemic, and Supergirl is opening in the same cold environment,” said David A Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. Misfires include Madame Web, with US$15 million in opening-weekend ticket sales in 2024, and The Marvels, which debuted to US$46 million in 2023.

While a setback, the result for Supergirl does not necessarily undermine the broader strategy that Gunn and Safran have put in place for DC Studios. Box office analysts are optimistic, for instance, about the fortunes of their next movie, Clayface, which cost only an estimated US$45 million to make; it arrives in October. Early buzz around Man of Tomorrow is also promising.

DC Studios has also found substantial success under Gunn and Safran on television. The Penguin became an HBO hit in 2024, Creature Commandos earned a swift renewal and strong reviews later that year, and DC executives have extremely high expectations for Lanterns, which debuts on HBO in August.

The upshot: Analysts said that Supergirl was more likely to be an isolated stumble than a verdict on DC Studios’ broader overhaul. NYTIMES