Superman ends its theatrical run with $615 million after 11 weekends in cinemas, and the film remained in the top 20 on box office charts for the first 10 of those 11 weekends. Writer-director and DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn’s reboot of the Man of Steel fell out of the top-10 for the first time on weekend #10, dropping to 16th place despite having already spent more than a month on digital home rental and sales.
Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet star in “Superman.”
Source: Warner, DC Studios
Superman Blockbuster Numbers
It’s worth looking one more time at Superman’s accomplishments now that its theatrical release is completed. The film faced tremendous pressure, in the aftermath of the box office collapse of WBD’s previous DCEU, as nine films across five years of release bombed at the box office – none of those nine movies could reach $450 million in global receipts, and six of them didn’t even reach $300 million.
The DC cinematic brand was damaged, enough that even the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman in The Flash couldn’t help that film avoid flopping. Superman himself had been treated as increasingly unpopular at the studio itself, and eventually Henry Cavill’s Superman’s cameos in other films did nothing to boost those films’ bad box office and reviews.
Superman Past And Present
Part of the problem was, audiences never got a chance to fully invest in Cavill as Superman before he was killed off in Batman v Superman, the follow-up to Cavill’s introduction in Man of Steel, and never got to see his full arc as it was written and originally filmed in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman were technically successful at the box office, but both are recognized as having underperformed against potential and expectations, especially the second film, and as it relates to the topic of Superman himself it just didn’t help that the first movie treated him as unsure if Earth was worthy of him, while the second movie had him decide the answer was “probably not” for most of the story until he changed his mind moments before his death.
So audiences showed up and gave the DCEU’s Superman a chance, but they had trouble connecting to him and then he was gone. The studio Frankenstein’s Monster that is the Justice League theatrical release only further tainted the DCEU’s and its Superman’s reputations. Those later Superman cameos — one without his head as in Shazam! and one with his head in Black Adam – only clarified how little interest there was in him turning up again.
I don’t mean to sound cruel, this isn’t a knock against Cavill or his Superman when he was given actual stories to work from. It’s a knock against studio leadership that perpetually interfered with the DC superhero movies every chance it got and hamstrung the DCEU right out the gate. That’s a tale already told enough times over the past decade-plus, but now there’s a new chapter, or rather a new beginning.
Deciding to start mostly from scratch and only carry over a few elements (primarily James Gunn’s own work in the prior DCEU, specifically season 1 of Peacemaker on HBO Max and much of The Suicide Squad film), the new DCU does what the DCEU did by starting in a pre-existing universe of superheroes. But in the old cinematic world, most with actual superhuman powers or alien origins had been more hidden from public view or only appeared in rare instances. Now, there’s a 300 year history of these metahumans existing and interacting on Earth, increasing in numbers, and in modern times running (or flying) around fighting crime and saving Earth like clockwork.
And this Superman is kid-friendly, first and foremost. Family audiences are the target demographic, but especially the children. Those are the main viewers Superman is made for, and it made all of the difference, as I’ve discussed at length elsewhere.
Superman opened to $125 million in North America and an additional $95 million internationally, for a pretty good but not stellar $220 million. The important thing was that this figure meant the odds of topping $500 million were immediately high, if the audience word of mouth was positive enough and family attendance was high enough.
Of course, Superman wound up with an 83% at Rotten Tomatoes and an A- grade from audiences via Cinemascore, with high “recommend” scores. This resulted in a roughly 2.8x final multiplier that sent the film topping $600 million and ensuring the word was out: audience were happy to show up again for DC and Superman.
Superman’s home entertainment numbers have set records. It’s the highest-selling PVOD of 2025 and is ahead of Deadpool & Wolverine at the same point, with more than half a million U.S. households watching the film on home release in the first 72 hours. Those numbers will keep growing, and for anyone wondering why the film went to home entertainment so fast
Superman’s Future Is DC’s Future
The film’s popularity not only in theaters but now on home entertainment is a terrific sign for DC Studios, WBD, and any potential buyers bidding on the up-for-sale companies. These are amazing numbers, and they suggest audiences who didn’t make it to theaters for Superman will show up for writer-director Gunn’s follow-up Man of Tomorrow in 2027, and probably a year sooner for director Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl, which is penned by scribe Ana Nogueira.
Clayface, a horror movie Batman spinoff from director James Watkins with a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, should benefit from the positive DC reputational boost and the tie-in to the bat-brand, and it helps that next year when Clayface hits theaters the press will have been full all summer of stories and information about Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part II already in production.
I think next year’s combo of a Super-family movie and a Batman-world movie, setting up the following year’s Superman follow-up and Batman sequel, will continue to popularize the DCU brand and make it feel inevitable that this is the next “big thing” in superhero cinema.
But just as Superman kickstarted the new DCU successfully, the DCU’s future depends on the character and the studio delivering the goods again in what are becoming anxiously awaited follow-ups. Supergirl also has to keep the ball rolling, as a stumble or mid response would slow momentum and could start a negative media narrative. And any sense of Supergirl underperforming or meeting with less enthusiastic audience and critical scores would in turn put even more pressure on Man of Tomorrow to hit a home run. If it doesn’t, then the DCU would feel the pain.
It’s no exaggeration to say Superman saved DC’s cinematic reputation and their chances for a shared superhero world. And it’s also no exaggeration to say it had to, really. Gunn and the entire team at DC Studios and WBD have a lot to be proud of, and nobody should underestimate how positive all of the signs are for next year and the year after. If things go as planned, then it will be a perfect mix of anticipation, potential, and actual delivery that could help set off exactly the sort of bidding war WBD hopes for when the inevitable buyout begins soon. Whoever wins could make the best business decision of their careers by staying out of DC Studios’ way and letting them work magic.