Although Superman continues to dominate the domestic box office after two weeks, the Man of Steel hasn’t translated quite the same way to international audiences.
Director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn recently commented on the movie’s international haul of $173 million, trailing behind the movie’s $253M gross since opening July 8 in theaters.
“We’re definitely performing better domestically than we are internationally, but internationally is also rising and having really good weekday numbers in the same way we are,” he explained to Rolling Stone. “So obviously the word of mouth is very positive both here and everywhere else. Which is the thing that we needed to do the most. At the same time, there are certain countries in which it’s really performing well. Brazil and the U.K.”
Gunn continued, “Superman is not a known commodity in some places. He is not a big known superhero in some places like Batman is. That affects things. And it also affects things that we have a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world right now. It isn’t really helping us. So I think it’s just a matter of letting something grow. But again, for us, everything’s been a total win. Having the movie come out and be something that has been embraced by people everywhere — this is just the seed of the tree that Peter [Safran] and I have been watering for the past three years. So to be able to have it start off so positively has been incredibly overwhelming.”
Superman‘s global running total continues to soar, surpassing $426M, with a second weekend haul of $58.5M surpassing Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) at $51.3M.
Gunn has previously described Superman as “the story of America,” explaining, “An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
After taking over DC Studios with Safran in 2022, Superman marks the first entry in Gunn’s new DCU franchise, which begins with the ‘Gods and Monsters’ phase.
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