{"id":749729,"date":"2026-07-08T03:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T03:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/749729\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T03:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T03:19:18","slug":"james-gunn-peter-safran-named-biggest-losers-of-2026-over-supergirl-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/749729\/","title":{"rendered":"James Gunn, Peter Safran Named Biggest Losers Of 2026 Over Supergirl Flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

The industry verdict on James Gunn and Peter Safran is in, and it isn\u2019t coming from YouTube channels or \u201ctoxic fandom.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Monday\u2019s episode of The Town<\/a>, Puck founding partner Matt Belloni and Bloomberg\u2019s Lucas Shaw ran through their mid-year winners and losers report for 2026, and the DC Studios co-heads got named the biggest losers in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Not Kathleen Kennedy (she made the list separately). Not Netflix\u2019s co-CEOs (them too). The \u201cobvious\u201d pick, per Shaw: \u201cJames Gunn and Peter Safran, the DCU guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SupergirlVia WB<\/p>\n

\u2018Clearly The Bomb Of The Year\u2019<\/p>\n

The hosts noted Supergirl is sitting at barely $100 million worldwide after two weekends: \u201cClearly the bomb of the year,\u201d they say, and bigger than Masters of the Universe, \u201cbecause nobody thought Masters of the Universe was really going to work other than maybe a couple people at Mattel and Amazon,\u201d said Shaw.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RELATED<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"Supergirl
\n
\n Supergirl Facing $244 Million Theatrical Loss: \u2018There\u2019s No Way To Spin This\u2019
\n Dan Murrell has run the Supergirl numbers, and there is no version of them that Warner Bros. Discovery is going to like:…
\n
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

The numbers back the label, as we\u2019ve been documenting: a $37 million domestic opening, a near 80% second-weekend collapse<\/a> that ranks sixth-worst all time for a 3,000+ theater release, and a projected theatrical loss of $244.3 million<\/a> against $295 million in combined production and marketing costs.<\/p>\n

Shaw admitted even he thought Supergirl would have done better: \u201cI just figured, clearly incorrectly, that the floor on a superhero movie was still like 250, 300. This movie is not going to sniff two.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added that he liked Milly Alcock and \u201cthought the movie could potentially be decent,\u201d which tracks with the blame landing on leadership<\/a>, not the star.<\/p>\n

Belloni, who attended CinemaCon, also reminded Shaw the writing was on the wall in Vegas: \u201cYou weren\u2019t at CinemaCon. It was kind of a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamesVia WB<\/p>\n

The David Ellison Question Hanging Over DC Studios<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the part that matters going forward, and it\u2019s the same thread we\u2019ve been pulling for months: what happens to Gunn and Safran once David Ellison\u2019s Paramount closes on Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n

From the episode: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that they\u2019re going to necessarily abort the strategy. But if you\u2019re David Ellison and you get your deal done, how much faith are you putting in these guys to know what they\u2019re doing if they can\u2019t make Supergirl work?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the whole ballgame. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RELATED<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"Milly
\n
\n Milly Alcock Says Supergirl Tells Young Girls It\u2019s OK To Be \u2018Bad\u2019 And \u2018Messy\u2019
\n Milly Alcock is teasing the kind of message audiences can expect from Supergirl, and it sounds like this version of Kara Zor-El…
\n
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

The DC reset was sold as the adults finally taking over: \u201cthe rebooted DC under these two guys who knew what they were doing,\u201d as the episode put it. <\/p>\n

Two movies in, the second one is the bomb of the year, and the incoming owner hasn\u2019t even taken the keys yet. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the episode, Belloni said he\u2019s skeptical WBD even gets to its planned split, and noted Netflix walked away from the bidding war with $2.8 billion after running up Ellison\u2019s price, meaning the man who overpaid for this studio is going to want answers.<\/p>\n

\"Superman<\/p>\n

Peter Safran\u2019s Statement: \u2018Please Do Not Fire Us\u2019<\/p>\n

The hosts also went in on Safran\u2019s rare statement to The New York Times the Sunday after opening weekend, the one where he conceded Supergirl \u201cdid not meet our box office expectations\u201d while insisting it\u2019s \u201cjust one component of a broader long-term strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The translation offered on the podcast: \u201ci.e., David Ellison, we\u2019ve got a long-term strategy. Please do not fire us. We have a vision. We know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Even Superman Gets Called Out<\/p>\n

The episode also took a shot at the foundation the whole \u201cDCU is working\u201d narrative rests on: \u201cThey took a big victory lap after Superman, which was a hit, but not the massive hit that they made it out to be, especially given the cost. And then huge flame out on the second movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a point we made when the Superman numbers came in<\/a>, that the victory lap always outran the actual margins. Now the trades are saying it out loud.<\/p>\n

\"Supergirl<\/p>\n

Worst Possible Timing<\/p>\n

The episode called this \u201cthe worst possible timing for them to have the bomb of the summer,\u201d with the Ellison deal pending, and it\u2019s about to get worse. <\/p>\n

San Diego Comic-Con is two weeks out, where DC Studios will have to sell a slate and a strategy while wearing the bomb of the year, and while the blame-game reporting (THR\u2019s creative-squabbles exclusive among them) keeps landing.<\/p>\n

None of this should surprise CBN readers. This is the worst-case scenario we laid out back in May<\/a> when the tracking first cratered, and the bomb math<\/a> has only gotten uglier since. The box office is the arbiter, and now the most plugged-in reporters in town have rendered the same verdict: biggest losers in Hollywood, 2026.<\/p>\n

Will Harrigan writes about comics, movies, and pop culture for Cosmic Book News. He is a comic book and film enthusiast, with a particular interest in cosmic comics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The industry verdict on James Gunn and Peter Safran is in, and it isn\u2019t coming from YouTube channels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,208,206,85086,21545],"class_list":["post-749729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-james-gunn","tag-movies","tag-peter-safran","tag-supergirl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749729","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=749729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}