{"id":733754,"date":"2026-06-29T23:26:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/733754\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:26:22","slug":"supergirl-bombs-at-box-office-will-lose-125-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/733754\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Supergirl’ Bombs At Box Office, Will Lose $125 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMarvel boss Kevin Feige once said back in 2017 at a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 presser <\/a>that when it came to the studio\u2019s embrace of deeper character comic book stories like Black Panther and Ant-Man, \u201cThe biggest risk was not [in] doing them. The biggest risk would have been doing\u00a0Iron Man\u00a01, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs such, the revived DC Studios<\/a> under Guardians of the Galaxy franchise filmmaker James Gunn<\/a> and Conjuring franchise producer Peter Safran<\/a> has plans to do exactly that: Not to gavage moviegoers on a diet of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but rather build secondary DC characters into diamond properties.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo they took a swing on Tom King and Bilquis Evely\u2019s visceral and edgy graphic novel\u00a0Supergirl<\/a>: Woman of Tomorrow, which fans consider a True Grit-type story in the Krypton sub-verse. It has cost Gunn and Safran\u2019s DC dearly; industry sources are estimating a $125 million loss after a $68M worldwide and $37M domestic opening<\/a> and all first-cycle downstream ancillaries. Warner Bros<\/a> sources have told us that breakeven for the Craig Gillespie-directed space opera resides in the $315M global range after a reported $170M-$186M net production cost and $120M global P&A (that doesn\u2019t include the DC-record $100M promotional partner campaign<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Supergirl\u2019 Red Carpet Premiere Photos<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSupergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was a sophisticated story about Superman\u2019s cousin, Kara Zor-El, coming out of her drunken stupor to avenge the murders of a young girl\u2019s family at the hands of the notorious villain Krem. Clearly the IP was a significant one-up from 1980s Superman producer Alexander Salkind\u2019s spinoff Supergirl, which Warner Bros passed on releasing in 1984 (and TriStar took over) following the tanking of the Richard Pryor-starring Superman III. The earlier Supergirl, headlined by Helen Slater, deep-sixed at the box office with just over $14M domestic per Box Office Mojo.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the hands of Gillespie \u2014 whose specialty is edgy female-empowerment tales like the Oscar-winning I, Tonya and Cruella as well as the Emmy-winning Hulu series Pam & Tommy \u2014 how could the new Supergirl go wrong?<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike Marvel Studios, which has OD\u2019ed on Disney+ streaming series and rapidly pumped out secondary character pics, Gunn and Safran made a point to be strict about development, and to never go into production on a half-written screenplay. That said, I\u2019m told the Supergirl adaptation by Hightown actress Ana Nogueira was beloved internally, and considered ready to go.<\/p>\n

\n\tComing away from testing, DC knew there were hurdles ahead. The response to Supergirl was \u201cgood, not great,\u201d and that just doesn\u2019t fly with any superhero movie today. Tracking services told Deadline as summer kicked off that Supergirl, along with Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 bomb Masters of the Universe and Universal\/Amblin\u2019s Disclosure Day, were key event films that were extremely lukewarm in their word of mouth. The ho-hum on Supergirl was further exacerbated by the response to the first trailer and the takeaway from CinemaCon<\/a> (the bus battle scene wasn\u2019t entirely embraced when shown in the room).<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Milly Alcock On \u2018Supergirl\u2019 & Superhero Backlash: \u201cNot Every Film Is For Everyone\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSocial media movie analytics firm RelishMix reported before the pic\u2019s opening, \u201cMixed-negative leaning chatter for\u00a0Supergirl\u00a0centers on concerns that the film feels overly James Gunn-coded, with recurring criticism aimed at the humor, characterization, and perceived Guardians-style DNA. Skeptics argue Kara comes across less like\u00a0Supergirl\u00a0and more like a cosmic antihero, while others question the trailer\u2019s tone, vocal performance, and reliance on familiar visual beats. Comparisons to\u00a0Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, the 1984\u00a0Supergirl, and even recent\u00a0Superman\u00a0adaptations are used as measuring sticks rather than compliments. The sharpest critiques suggest audience fatigue with Gunn\u2019s stylistic fingerprints and concern that the character has drifted from her traditional identity. Remarks include \u2018This looks like\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy\u00a0as a one woman show\u2019 and \u2018More campy, comedic fake-looking CGI.\u2019 Additional examples include, \u2018This movie has failure written all over it\u2019 and \u2018Looks worse than the one from the 80s.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOveralll social media reach on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram for Supergirl was small at 639M, compared to the 953.8M racked up by Superman, Thor: Love & Thunder\u2018s 963.2M and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania\u2018s 732M.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Supergirl\u2019 $100M+ Promo Partner Campaign Biggest Ever For Warner Bros\u2019 DC Studios<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen things get negative on a superhero property, they go negative quickly in a meteoric way,\u201d one industry analyst told us, citing examples of The Flash (which was dogged by tabloid reports<\/a> about its star Ezra Miller before opening); The Marvels; as well as Joker: Folie a Deux, a Stephen Sondheim-like musical no fan wanted.<\/p>\n

\n\tCritics and fanboy media thrashed Supergirl not just for its Guardians of the Galaxy touchstones, but also for aping Mad Max. How dare Supergirl save enslaved women in the galaxy like Mad Max and Furiosa! Following the misfire of Lionsgate\u2019s Ballerina last summer ($140.2M WW) and Furiosa the summer before ($174.3M WW), these female-led action pics and superhero properties come up against immense male toxicity, with some critics picking on Supergirl headliner Milly Alcock<\/a>\u2018s physique. Captain Marvel, given that it was a bridge to Avengers: Endgame in March 2019, was able to withstand such nastiness with a $1.1 billion gross; its 2023 successor The Marvels however could not ($206.1M). Also invincible was 2017\u2019s Wonder Woman at $823.7M WW.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s why: There had never been a feature film made about Wonder Woman, a beloved and very popular DC character, which immediately drew women over 25 (32%), with women under 25 not too far behind (23%). Also, there was the fresh allure of Gal Gadot as an Amazon. Critics embraced the big-screen take on Diana of Themyscira at 93% certified fresh while throwing tomatoes in Supergirl\u2018s face at 54% Rotten.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Supergirl\u2019 Review: DC\u2019s Latest Superhero Pic Doesn\u2019t Fly High Enough<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSupergirl was an attempt by the new DC to deliver a movie for the under-25 audience, much like Wonder Woman with older females. However, Supergirl is dark stuff: Her parents die at the beginning of the film and her dog is on the brink of death. You wanna know what young women want, look no further than Amazon Prime\u2019s lineup of sudsy series Off Campus and The Summer I Turned Pretty, which Supergirl is not. Supergirl wound up only pulling in a low 15% women under 25. Overall definite recommend on Screen Engine and Rentrak\u2019s Postmark audience exits was 52%, versus Superman at 74%.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut if $37M-$74.3M (the high range being last summer\u2019s Thunderbolts*) is the new opening domestic-weekend range for deeper comic book characters, why not just make these risky deep universe movies cheaper? Again, don\u2019t spend $120M-plus on a production that can\u2019t pull in more than three demos. On the flip side, you can\u2019t underspend on VFX, take a flier on a galaxy-hopping space opera and in the end underserve fans.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Every Actor Who Has Played Superman \u2013 Photo Gallery<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSome like to think that Supergirl being wedged between the success of Toy Story 5 and the upcoming Minions & Monsters<\/a> amid the noise of the World Cup is a recipe for failure. Nah. Other PG-13 live-action fan properties have been booked in the July 4 corridor and worked before, i.e., last year\u2019s Jurassic World: Rebirth. Plus, we aren\u2019t even in the thick of World Cup semifinals yet. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it comes to making a superhero movie leap off a building nowadays with a single bound, one studio insider asserts, \u201cGood, not great doesn\u2019t cut it. You can\u2019t get away with it. The fans will have their knives out for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The 61 Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 45 Of The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 21 Theatrical And Streaming Movies To Look Forward To This Summer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marvel boss Kevin Feige once said back in 2017 at a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 presser…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1038,88,208,92573,85086,21545,5251],"class_list":["post-733754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dc-studios","tag-entertainment","tag-james-gunn","tag-milly-alcock","tag-peter-safran","tag-supergirl","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}