{"id":21087,"date":"2025-07-24T20:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/21087\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T20:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T20:23:08","slug":"superman-is-not-flying-as-high-overseas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/21087\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman Is Not Flying as High Overseas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn the same day that James Gunn\u2019s Superman<\/a> opened in U.S. theaters, President Donald Trump posted a meme of himself dressed as the Man of Steel. If there was a collective groan on the Warner Bros. lot, home of DC Studios, it\u2019s no surprise. For years, the studio\u2019s marketing mavens have worked to downplay the very pro-American aspect of the comic book hero when peddling the movie franchise internationally.<\/p>\n

\n\tSuperman opened to a promising $125 million domestically in a major win for Gunn and the Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, which Gunn also happens to run alongside Peter Safran. Overseas was a different story, where the July summer tentpole debuted to $95 million, behind a projected launch of $100 million to $125 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe phrase \u201ctruth, justice and the American way\u201d became forever aligned with the iconic character in the 1940s, thanks to the radio show Adventures of Superman. Fast-forward to 2006, when Warner Bros. and director Bryan Singer ditched the \u201cAmerican Way\u201d slogan when marketing Superman Returns to a global audience. By that time \u2014 unlike the era when the Superman movies starring Christopher Reeves were released \u2014 the foreign box office<\/a> had become integral to the success of a Hollywood tentpole.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a major step forward for DC\u2019s film division, Singer\u2019s Superman Returns<\/a> topped out at $391.1 million globally, with foreign ticket sales making up nearly 49 percent of the total gross. And when Zack Snyder\u2019s Man of Steel<\/a> (notice that Superman wasn\u2019t even mentioned in the title) flew into theaters in 2013, it grossed $670.1 million worldwide, with foreign ticket sales making up nearly 57 percent of the total, not adjusted for inflation. The international haul was $379.1 million, versus a domestic tally of $291 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral years later in 2016, Snyder\u2019s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice<\/a> fared even better overseas, grossing $544 million \u2014 or more than 62 percent of its total cume of $874.4 million (it earned more than $63 million in China alone). Domestically, the sequel grossed $330.4 million, a 38 percent share.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to the pandemic, it wasn\u2019t unheard of for a Hollywood tentpole to see 60 percent to 70 percent of its gross come from overseas. The landscape has changed dramatically since then. Hollywood films can no longer count on China, where the government is making it difficult, if not impossible, for Western films to book screens so as to make room for local nationalist titles. This trend has only gotten worse as the Chinese government retaliates against Trump\u2019s policies. Not to mention that Trump and his administration are a divisive topic across the globe, and not just in China.<\/p>\n

\n\tGunn went out of his way to change \u201cthe American way\u201d to \u201cthe human way\u201d in the film but, so far, Superman is struggling at the international box office. Over opening weekend, only 42 percent of the film\u2019s gross came from overseas. That\u2019s not to say Superman is flailing overall; to the contrary, it crossed the $400 million mark globally in less than two weeks thanks to strong legsddd, including $236.2 million domestically and $173 million overseas through Sunday, July 20. It\u2019s doing strong midweek business; through July 22, the domestic tally stood at $253.2 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tGunn is well aware of the difficult predicament overseas and \u2014 without referring to Trump directly \u2014 said in a recent interview<\/a> \u201cit also affects things that we have a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world right now. It isn\u2019t really helping us. So I think it\u2019s just a matter of letting something grow. But again, for us, everything\u2019s been a total win. Having the movie come out and be something that has been embraced by people everywhere \u2014 this is just the seed of the tree that Peter 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.acknowledges that current political times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to real-life world affairs and the Trump regime, Superman is facing fierce competition from Universal and Amblin\u2019s Jurassic World Rebirth, which opened less than two weeks before over the long Fourth of July holiday. Case in point: Rebirth\u2018s worldwide total through July 20 stood at a dino-mite $648 million, including $468.8 million overseas. And it\u2019s defied all odds in earning $72 million in China, while Superman barely cracked $7 million in its opening despite an on-the-ground visit from Gunn and Safran.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo date, Superman is faring best in the U.K., where it has earned $22.3 million through June 20 \u2014 its second weekend \u2014 followed by Mexico ($16.6 million), Australia ($11 million), France ($8.2 million) and China ($8.5 million). DC insiders believe the film has plenty of time to improve its fortunes, even overseas, thanks to strong word of mouth and even with the entry this weekend of Marvel Studios\u2019 The Fantastic Four: First Steps.<\/p>\n

\n\tStudios don\u2019t envy the position DC and Superman are in when it comes to the overseas box office results so far. \u201cThe movie is doing well enough overseas, but they\u2019ve got to be disappointed,\u201d notes one rival studio executive.<\/p>\n

\n\tJuly 24, 9:15 a.m.: A prior version of this story incorrectly stated the movie\u2019s foreign cume through July 20. <\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appeared in the July 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.\u00a0Click here to subscribe<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the same day that James Gunn\u2019s Superman opened in U.S. theaters, President Donald Trump posted a meme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7214,96,2839,951,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-21087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-box-office","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-superman","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}