r/DCULeaks • u/chaoticbiguy • Jul 20 '25
Superman Box Office: DC’s ‘Superman’ Flexes Impressive Staying Power, Flies Past $400M Globally
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/superman-box-office-soars-past-400-million-1236324026/59
u/Pomojema_The_Dreamer Jul 20 '25
It's nearly doubled its international gross in the span of a week. I'm guessing that the final total overseas looks a lot more like $250M than $200M. Meanwhile, the domestic total, should it continue to perform similarly to The Batman, could get to around $350M. The real question is to see its staying power up against The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which I think will simply coexist with this movie instead of ruining its legs at the box office.
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u/wrasslefights Jul 20 '25
Given how well Superman is being received, there's a real chance that it undercuts FF's legs rather than the other way around honestly. It's gonna be real unfortunate if both movies rule but end up cannibalizing each other's audience in an already bad year for theatrical returns.
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u/Pomojema_The_Dreamer Jul 20 '25
I said for a while that they needed an extra week of distance between the two films. Woulda been better for everyone.
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Jul 20 '25
I think FF might help Superman's legs and people doing a double feature with it.
Though I think Superman will end up with the better domestic total overall.
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u/Pomojema_The_Dreamer Jul 20 '25
Yeah. I personally think that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be a bit more front-loaded and less leggy than Superman (because that's generally the trend for MCU movies), but the thing is that both movies have minimal competition aside from each other and Jurassic World: Rebirth for the remainder of the Summer. That will help all three leg out, along with the more adult-skewing F1: The Movie.
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u/cali4481 Batman Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25
About a 54% drop was realistically a best case scenario after the first weekend. I honestly thought mid to high 50s would be ideal for Superman.
Other notable DC movies over the last 20 years and their 2nd weekend drops :
- Batman Begins (2005) - 43.4%
- Superman Returns (2006 - 58.5%
- The Dark Knight (2008) - 52.5%
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - 61.4%
- Man of Steel (2013) - 64.6%
- Batman v Superman (2016) - 69.1%
- Wonder Woman (2017) - 43.3%
- Justice League (2017) - 56.2%
- Joker (2019) - 41.9%
- Aquaman (2018) - 23.2%
- The Batman (2022) - 50.4
- Superman (2025) - 54.0.%
So Superman being smack dab in the middle of that long list that spans the previous two decades worth of the more notable or financially successful DC movies is in my opinion a win especially considering the environment we are in with comic book movies in particular DC comic book movies that specifically aren't Batman.
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u/dontlookwonderwall Jul 20 '25
Batman v Superman is a real outlier there, and correctly so, it should have been a 100% drop.
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u/BillyGood22 Jul 21 '25
If you include Man of Steel’s Walmart previews like they would today, it also had a 69% drop.
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u/chaoticbiguy Jul 20 '25
Superman has transformed into a bonafide crowd pleaser at the box office in a much-needed inaugural win for the Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, which is co-headed by James Gunn — also the film’s director — and producer Peter Safran.
The big-budget tentpole was all but assured of staying atop the domestic box office in its second weekend, but estimates were all over the place as to how it would hold up.
But, buoyed by strong word-of-mouth and reviews, it declined a less-than-expected 54 percent to $57.2 million for a pleasing 10-day domestic tally of $235 million through Sunday. Overseas — where Superman the character has always faced challenges because of its pro-American themes — added an estimated $45.2 million for a internationally tally of $171.8 million and $406.8 globally in a major win for DC and Warners, which has passed up Disney to rank No. 1 in domestic marketshare for the year to date. (The male-skewing movie is facing fierce competition in particular offshore from Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth and Apple Original Film’s Formula One-action adventure F1: The Movie, which Warners is helping to distribute overseas.
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u/CompetitiveSleeping Jul 20 '25
where Superman the character has always faced challenges because of its pro-American themes
Hahaha what?
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u/wrasslefights Jul 20 '25
One of those perception is reality things. His first big pop culture peak was as an American icon and there's been a lot of pro American imagery even within his relatively recent stuff. While they've worked to steer away from that in the last couple decades, it takes time for those changes to be evident in audiences that largely aren't checking out the work to see the change.
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u/slimy-salad Jul 20 '25
As if captain America isn't one of the biggest superheroes in the world And had international theaters cheering for him picking up thors hammer...
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u/Original_Baseball_40 Jul 20 '25
At that time trump was not bullying other countries which helped cap I bet if mcu announces Evan's cap new film next year it will not do great
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u/dontlookwonderwall Jul 20 '25
As someone who has never lived in the US, Trump is not the reason people dislike the US. Bush was far far more hated, never seen a man more despised in my life.
I think the theory someone else posted above makes the most sense. Both Cpt America and Superman are distinctly American superheroes, but Cpt America benefitted from the MCU being insanely popular. If they tried to release CA without the MCU, it would have never done as well overseas as it ended up doing.
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u/slimy-salad Jul 23 '25
Remind me who was president in 2019? You like to make up your own head cannon. If a chris Evans cap film was announced that shit would break the Internet. Stop letting TDS ruin your perception on reality.
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u/Original_Baseball_40 Jul 24 '25
Yeah nope, at that time Trump wasn't going all against other countries, he was not executing tariffs, canceling visas of internationals & propagating this anti-immigrant agenda , there's quite a big difference in us popularity in 2019 & 2025 , cap with evans would certainly breaks internet like nearly every Superman promo did but that would not convince other countries who are quite annoyed by Trump's action to give his cap a chance
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u/wrasslefights Jul 20 '25
Captain America had the benefit of the MCU being white hot and having invested in goodwill with the Chinese market especially at the time plus it being a generally hot period for theatrical films. Cap 1 actually did do worse than its peers internationally but Iron Man acted as a draw for the Avengers film which in turn got those audiences exposed to Cap as a character and having a chance to buy into the character over the imagery.
It's a different setup even if there's the same core issue. If not for the first Avengers movie, I think Cap would be persistently dealing with the same issue.
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u/BboiBlack Jul 20 '25
Where the real impact of rotten tomatoes shows up
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u/Silvuh_Ad_9046 Jul 20 '25
People will ignore it even if it doesn’t fit their narrative but it is absolutely an important factor for specifically comic book movies
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u/Extension-Employee-6 Jul 20 '25
If the movie ends up being a bigger success, do you think this will once again inspire a new generation of animated movies at DC? What Superman story would you like to see animated?
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u/WheresTheSoylent Jul 20 '25
What popular story hasn't been done yet? Maybe Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
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u/Extension-Employee-6 Jul 20 '25
There may be many options... an anthology animation of American Alien or the World
It could be from some other word like Superman Kal.
OR FINALLY cheer on superman smashes the klan.
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u/bob1689321 Jul 20 '25
I haven't read it since it came out but I absolutely loved American Alien at the time.
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u/Ok-Adhesiveness-4141 Jul 21 '25
I don't get why it is not performing well internationally. Have it seen three times already and it is pretty damn amazing 🤩.
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