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 $170 million to make and tens of millions more to market, was on pace to take in about $38 million from Thursday through Sunday at theaters in the United States and Canada — about 24 percent below prerelease analyst projections of $50 million that had already been considered disappointing. It took in an additional $30 million overseas.
The film received a “rotten” rating from the review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Ticket buyers were similarly unimpressed, giving “Supergirl” a B-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls.
“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-chief executive of DC Studios, said by telephone.
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. Theaters in the United States and Canada were expected to sell about $153.5 million in tickets in total, up 18 percent 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 $70 million, for a new domestic total of $297 million and a worldwide total of $585 million. “Supergirl” was second. The horror-themed “Obsession” (Focus Features) was third in its seventh weekend in theaters with roughly $10 million in ticket sales, lifting its domestic total to $234 million and about $370 million worldwide.
“Jackass: Best and Last” (Paramount) debuted in fourth place with about $8.4 million. The sequel, which repackaged old footage from the franchise with some newly shot scenes, cost only about $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.
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 Mr. 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 $619 million in global ticket sales. It also received strong reviews.
“Supergirl,” starring Milly Alcock and directed by Craig Gillespie, was meant to add a second pillar. Another “Superman” installment, this one titled “Man of Tomorrow,” is scheduled for release next summer.
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 $67 million in opening-weekend ticket sales, while “Morbius,” with Jared Leto in the main role, had a disastrous $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 misogyny among the core fan base, which is largely male. Before its release, “Supergirl” became a target of familiar online discourse, with some fanboys attacking Ms. Alcock’s casting and appearance. (While critics generally disliked the movie, most praised her performance.)
“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 $15 million in opening-weekend ticket sales in 2024, and “The Marvels,” which debuted to $46 million in 2023.
While a setback, the result for “Supergirl” does not necessarily undermine the broader strategy that Mr. Gunn and Mr. 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 $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 Mr. Gunn and Mr. 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.
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