Warner Bros. DCU summer superhero tentpole film Supergirl is shaping up to be a super bomb and is now on track to losing at least $100 million, analysts say.
Supergirl, which opened on Friday, is one of the lowest earning superhero flicks of the modern era with only a $37 million box office take for its opening weekend. And at $30 million, the film earned even less overseas, pulling in an anemic $67 million total world-wide against a more than $200 million budget, Variety reports.
Variety points out that the film is a “money loser” for Warners and “a major setback for the newly rebooted DC Universe.”
Indeed, this is only the second film in the newest iteration of the DC comic book film universe helmed by lauded producer, writer, and director James Gunn. The first film was the somewhat disappointing Superman reboot from last year. While the film did earn back its $225 million budget with a $350 million gross box office take, it was received to lukewarm reviews and a less than enthusiastic audience.
Analysts say that Supergirl would have to earn $375 million to break even. But projections don’t put the film’s final take anywhere near that. So far, it is only projected at a $300 million box office total. both domestic and overseas totaled – if it even reaches that much.
But so far, the Superman follow up has become a crashing failure. Variety claims that part of the problem is that the film is focused on a “lesser-known comic book character.”
“This was always going to be a tough hurdle for DC and Warner Bros. because Supergirl isn’t a character that has ever created an event-level blockbuster,” analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations told the paper. “Audience perception of ‘Supergirl’ was not good. This is just a case of the film wasn’t good enough to become an event.”
Others wonder about superhero movie fatigue.
Still, DCU co-chief Peter Safran says that the poor showing of Supergirl won’t hurt the evolving new universe of films. He says its full speed ahead.
“While ‘Supergirl’ didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in,” Safran told the media.
It isn’t as if people aren’t going to the theater, either. Toy Story 5 opened the weekend before and brought in more than $160 million world-wide. More to the point, the film’s box office was the second largest opening ever for an animated film, second only to 2018’s The Incredibles, which earned $182.7 million over its opening weekend.
Supergirl has one other problem. Breitbart’s John Nolte added that the film’s star, Milly Alcock, made matters worse by appearing all over the place calling her then upcoming film a paean to the LGBTQ+ agenda, and calling anyone who might not like the movie a raging sexist and racist.
It appears that neither Alcock nor Hollywood learned anything at all from the mess actress Rachel Zegler made of Disney’s Snow White remake last year.
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