“Superman” poster featuring David Corenswet.
Warner Bros. Pictures
James Gunn’s Superman, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, is ready to pass another box office milestone this weekend.
Superman — the first film released under Gunn and Peter Safran’s reign as co-CEOs at Warner Bros.’ DC Studios division — opened in theaters on July 11, earning $125 million in its first weekend domestically.
The film held the domestic box office crown in its second weekend with a $58.3 million take, but was knocked down to No. 2 in its third weekend by Disney and Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which earned $117.6 million in its opening frame in North American theaters. Since then, Superman’s box office run has held steady while The Fantastic Four has taken a nose dive.
Now, heading into its seventh weekend of release, Superman will easily top the $600 million mark worldwide once Friday’s box office numbers roll in. Through Thursday, Superman had a tally of $343.5 million in North American ticket sales and $256 million at the international box office for a running worldwide tally of $599.5 million.
Despite reaching the $600 million benchmark, only time will tell if Superman will become profitable during its theatrical run. According to Variety, Superman had a production budget of $225 million and a worldwide marketing spend of $125 million.
If the standard rule applies where theaters keep 50% of the ticket sales, that means Superman — not counting any residuals or miscellaneous payouts — still has some financial ground to cover. However, in additon to its ticket sales, Superman just opened another revenue stream on Aug. 15 when the film debuted on digital streaming via premium video on demand.
The release of the film on PVOD compliments the release of Gunn’s Peacemaker Season 2, which debuted with Episode 1 on HBO Max on Thursday. Set after the events of Superman, Peacemaker’s new season includes characters from Superman as the John Cena-led series continues to build out Gunn and Safran’s new DC Universe.
Julia Garner in “Weapons.”
Warner Bros. Pictures
Another Warner Bros. Release Just Reached A Box Office Milestone
There’s no question that it’s been a great year at the box office for Warner Bros., which prior to the release of Superman, scored huge hits with A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines and now, Weapons (F1: The Movie could be counted among Warner Bros.’ wins, too, but the studio is only on board as distributor of the movie, which is an Apple Original Films production).
On Thursday, the Julia Garner and Josh Brolin horror thriller made $2.4 million in North American ticket sales, boosting its domestic tally to $100.2 million.
Variety said passing the $100 million domestic box office milestone is a win for Warner Bros., considering that the Weapons had a $38 million production budget before prints and advertising.
Coupled with the film’s international take of $72.3 million, Weapons to date has a worldwide tally of $172.5 million.
Weapons — which took the domestic box office crown in its opening weekend and nabbed it again in its second weekend frame — is facing tough competition in its third weekend when the sing-along version of the Netflix streaming sensation KPop Demon Hunters hits theaters for a special weekend release.
KPop Demon Hunters is projected by Deadline to earn $15 million-plus domestically this weekend, so Weapons will need to top that tally to keep its box office crown. As of Friday, Deadline is projecting that Weapons will earn $13.5 million in its third weekend frame.
This weekend also sees the release of some notable indie titles, including Ron Howard’s survival thriller Eden, Ethan Coen’s crime comedy Honey Don’t and the English language dub of the worldwide box office blockbuster Ne Zha 2.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/08/22/superman-set-to-pass-600-million-at-global-box-office-this-weekend/