James Gunn's Superman Only Grosses $217 Million Globally In Dismal Opening Weekend
James Gunn’s Superman film only grossed $217 million globally in its opening weekend.
At the domestic box office, The-Numbers reports the film only grossed $122 million. It added another $95 million internationally for a global gross of $217 million.
Domestically, the film grossed $22.5 million on Thursday night then hit $56.1 million on Friday, but plummeted down to just $37.7 million on Saturday. On Sunday it only did $28.2 million.
The film had a worse opening weekend than Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which had an opening weekend domestically of $116.6 million, but that was back in 2013. Adjusted for inflation that $160.9 million. That means that Gunn’s film performed almost 25% worse than Snyder’s movie in its opening weekend. Man of Steel went on to gross $291 million domestically and another $376.9 million internationally for a global gross of $667.9 million.
Also, Gunn’s Superman’s international box office is performing worse than Man of Steel. Man of Steel’s international box office performed 1.3x better than at the domestic box office while Gunn’s Superman is just shy of 80% of the domestic gross.
Not only is the film performing worse than Man of Steel, but it is also performing worse than the 2006 film Superman Returns. It grossed $84.6 million in its domestic opening weekend. If you adjust that for inflation it comes to $134.8 million. Superman Returns went on to gross $200.1 million domestically and $190.9 million internationally for a global gross of $391 million. That is $623.6 million adjusted for inflation.
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Box office analyst OMB Reviews also notes the film is not doing well compared to the top films in 2025 either, “If you’re comparing films of 2025, not even close to being a top contender in this case. Well below. $100 million or so below Jurassic World Rebirth etc… It is not quite there.”
He went on to predict the film will likely only gross between $600 and $650 million in its entire run, “Most films tend to make about 30% of their entire global box office in their opening weekend, in their global debut. That would mean this film is looking at what $600 to $650 million in total.”
If those predictions hold, it is unlikely the film will break even. The state of Ohio, where the film was partially filmed, previously reported the film’s production budget was $363.8 million. It would need to gross upwards of $1.091 billion to break even.
However, James Gunn denied that number was accurate and a report from TheWrap claimed it had a production budget of $225 million. Even at that much lower mark it would need to gross $675 million.
Gunn would go on to downplay that the film does not even need to gross $700 million to be considered a success. He told GQ, “This is not the riskiest endeavor in the world. Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it’s not as big as people make it out to be. They hear these numbers that the movie’s only going to be successful if it makes 700 million or something and it’s just complete and utter nonsense. It doesn’t need to be as big of a situation as people are saying.”
What do you make of Superman’s box office returns?
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Melonie Mac said it was a "great" movie.
What is "great?"
Every movie is described in ads and repeated by bobblehead moviegoers that a particular movie is "great." But they can't remember 6 months later what made it the "greatest of all time?"
This is much like the "Jennifer Aniston is the most extremely beautiful actress that ever lived" hype that circulated in the 90s. Even then, I snorted. Kate Beckinsale was prettier and the realization of the hype made me question all other hypes.
"Greatest actor" ever? The safe bobblehead answer is Robert DeNiro. But his acting ability is limited and narrow - almost niche and not very good at that. Michael Caine is far better.
And this all begs the question, how much is the public led by publicity campaigns? Did Melonie buy into some hype and hasn't realized it?
What is causing usually sharp social critics to suddenly proclaim something weak is "great?"
Money? Delusion? War weariness?
With some luck this will flop.