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Earlier this month, writer-director James Gunn\u2019s Superman<\/a> leapt to a nine-figure box-office opening<\/a> in a single bound. Over its introductory weekend in theaters, the third Man of Steel<\/a> reboot<\/a> released this millennium sold $125 million in tickets in North America. It was 2025\u2019s third-biggest domestic debut after A Minecraft Movie<\/a> and Disney\u2019s \u201clive-action\u201d Lilo & Stitch. Starring David Corenswet (as \u201cBig Blue\u201d), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel<\/a>\u2019s Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), and an uncharacteristically butch Nicholas Hoult as Supe\u2019s smooth-domed super-nemesis Lex Luthor, the 11th franchise iteration landed the highest opening gross of any stand-alone Superman feature and handily surpassed 2013\u2019s Zack Snyder<\/a>\u2013directed Man of Steel ($116 million in its first three days). MoS, of course, went on to accumulate a healthy $670.1 million in torn tickets.<\/p>\n The $225 million Gunn Superman\u2019s kryptonite, however, came in the form of what industry number crunchers lament as a relatively lackluster opening in 78 foreign territories \u2014 international returns that totaled \u201cjust\u201d $95 million over the July 11\u201313 weekend. \u201cIf there\u2019s any softness here, it\u2019s overseas,\u201d analyst David A. Gross wrote in his FranchiseRE<\/a> box-office newsletter. \u201cSuperman has always been identified as a quintessentially American character and story, and in some parts of the world, America is currently not enjoying its greatest popularity.\u201d Added Variety<\/a> in an opening-weekend postmortem: \u201cBox office watchers say they aren\u2019t surprised Superman started stronger in the U.S. compared to overseas because the character \u2014 whose motto is \u2018Truth, justice and the American way\u2019 \u2014 is the quintessential star-spangled hero.\u201d And on The Ankler podcast<\/a>, entertainment columnist Richard Rushfield<\/a> pondered Superman\u2019s foreign performance in terms of a recent poll<\/a> by the Pew Research Center indicating plummeting goodwill toward the U.S. in more than a dozen countries. \u201cI think the brand is in bad shape right now,\u201d he said of brand America. \u201cIt gives the movies a boulder to have to push up the hill. It seems to be manifesting everywhere else: in business, in culture and in polls. So why wouldn\u2019t it with these most American movies?\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with Rolling Stone<\/a> published nine days after Superman\u2019s release, Gunn himself \u2014 the 58-year-old Suicide Squad<\/a> and Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker is also the co-chairman and co-CEO of Warner Bros.\u2019 comic-book movies division DC Studios \u2014 seized on this narrative to provide a rationale for why one of summer\u2019s most anticipated tentpoles did well but perhaps not good enough. \u201cSuperman is not a known commodity in some places,\u201d Gunn said. \u201cThat affects things. And it also affects things that we have a certain amount of anti-American sentiment in the world right now. It isn\u2019t really helping us.\u201d<\/p>\n Superman entered the movies marketplace with any number of potential frailties: the absence of a marquee star, perceptions of superhero fatigue<\/a> (especially abroad), IP that unlike Spider-Man or Batman has ebbed and flowed from public consciousness for the past two decades. But pinning its underwhelming financials on anti-American sentiment presents more than a few troubling implications for an already beleaguered Hollywood. In an era when President Trump\u2019s whipsaw imposition of tariffs has been wreaking havoc on world stock exchanges, DOGE<\/a> cuts to humanitarian aid<\/a> have eroded American \u201csoft\u201d power, and U.S. military support for Israel has come under intense criticism, is overtly American aesthetic the kiss of death for Hollywood\u2019s premium movie product?<\/p>\n In fact, Superman isn\u2019t the first major studio film this year to score at homeland multiplexes while logging relatively lackluster box office abroad. In the spring, Ryan Coogler\u2019s vampire-period-musical-body-horror-thriller Sinners<\/a> did robust business domestically but struggled to connect with audiences around the world ($278.5 million in the U.S. and Canada versus $87.3 million internationally). \u201cYes, it\u2019s a genre movie about vampires,\u201d notes Daniel Loria, editorial director of BoxOffice Pro. \u201cBut it\u2019s also a very culturally specific American movie. It has deep roots in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover, a side-by-side comparison between past and present Superman franchise installments underscores what would appear to be a softening market for uniquely American superhero triumphalism. In the U.K., Man of Steel opened to $16 million; Superman, by comparison, only did $10 million over its first three days there. Likewise, Snyder\u2019s 2013 film opened to a healthy $64 million in China. The new Supe? A mere $6.6 million. \u201cThat\u2019s a big drop-off,\u201d Loria says. \u201cYou see a major discrepancy. So there\u2019s key markets where this movie isn\u2019t performing in the way prior Superman movies did.\u201d<\/p>\n Like other industry analysts, cultural strategists, and studio executives consulted by Vulture, however, Loria fundamentally disagrees with Gunn\u2019s remarks \u2014 not only the idea that anti-American sentiment tanked Superman but the perception the movie even undershot financial expectations at all. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I buy James Gunn\u2019s reasoning for multiple reasons,\u201d he says. \u201cNegative sentiment toward the United States is not a new thing. It didn\u2019t start happening during the Trump administration. At the end of the day, I look at the numbers and see a Superman movie that\u2019s performing on par with the way DC or Marvel movies have performed in the post-pandemic box office.\u201d<\/p>\n Comscore senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian points out that this summer\u2019s other big comic-book movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a>, opened to $100 million \u2014 a smidge more than Superman \u2014 but has so far avoided negative headlines around soft international box office. \u201cIt shows how important the perceptions of a movie can be,\u201d Dergarabedian says. \u201cYou can have two movies do virtually the same international gross, and one is perceived as weak and one is perceived as stronger.\u201d He adds, \u201cThere was this idea that Superman doesn\u2019t travel like some characters do. But I think sometimes we\u2019re searching for a problem where there is none. A solution in search of a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Linda Ong is the CEO and founder of Cultique<\/a>, a cultural insights and strategic advisory firm that helps major brands \u2014 including a number of entertainment conglomerates and streamers \u2014 identify trends and calibrate their marketing strategies. Rather than ascribe Superman\u2019s inability to meet financial benchmarks to anti-American feeling, she feels the trouble overseas began with the movie\u2019s messaging. \u201cI would say the narrative that came from the studio and Gunn\u2019s words \u2014 that the film was a parable of immigration<\/a> \u2014 were picked up and amplified globally, often in a critical light,\u201d Ong says.<\/p>\n Superman\u2019s meh international returns can also be understood as reflective of the worldwide audience tiring of Hollywood\u2019s cultural diktats. \u201cWe also see that the U.S. is really losing its status as an epicenter of global culture. You now have countries like Korea doing gangbusters with K-pop, K-drama, Squid Game, as a cultural exporter and manufacturer,\u201d Ong continues. \u201cAnd a lot has been written lately<\/a> about the youth moving more conservative. Part of that is a rejection of decades of progressivism and progressive values, which had become the Establishment. The youth has always been anti-Establishment. This is a rejection of Hollywood also.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, at no point in Gunn\u2019s iteration of Superman is the phrase \u201cTruth, justice, and the American way<\/a>\u201d uttered. And while the caped Kryptonian does ultimately save the world, he never wraps himself in the star-spangled banner; the movie\u2019s most naked Americana occurs when Superman (as Clark Kent) travels home to Kansas to lick his wounds. There, he encounters Ma and Pa Kent, who remind Superman that while he is not technically an earthling, actions equal identity. And he has been this planet\u2019s savior basically since he learned to fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes. Spoiler alert: Superheroism ensues.<\/p>\n As of Tuesday, Superman\u2019s cumulative gross<\/a> stood at $551.3 million: $316 million from North America and $235.3 million \u2014 or 42.6 percent \u2014 from foreign territories. I phoned up an executive at a rival studio to ask if anti-American sentiment has been hurting other big movies this year. After practically laughing in my face, he started citing box-office evidence to the contrary. Since late May, Lilo & Stitch has taken in more than $1 billion globally, nearly 60 percent of that from foreign ticket sales, though the film takes place in Hawaii and is structured around the 50th state\u2019s signature concept of \u2018ohana. The dinosaur carnage in Jurassic World Rebirth<\/a>, meanwhile, stars Americans and Britons performing with American accents \u2014 Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, and Rupert Friend \u2014 and could never be mistaken for the cinema of any other country. JWB has grossed $723.8 million since July 1 \u2014 nearly 58 percent of that overseas \u2014 and is expected to become Hollywood\u2019s highest-grossing film internationally by the end of summer.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there were actual truths pointing to this tariff shit or anti-American whatever it is, everything would be down, all our movies would be down,\u201d this executive says. \u201cUnderperformance is underperformance. Superman just isn\u2019t traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, writer-director James Gunn\u2019s Superman leapt to a nine-figure box-office opening in a single bound. 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