Last weekend was a celebration for Superman, after a $125 million domestic debut and $220 million global launch for WBD and DC Studio’s newly rebooted DCU. Now Superman adds a solid $13 million Monday and massive $17 million Tuesday to push that figure to $155 million domestic.
David Corenswet stars in “Superman.”
Superman By The Numbers
Soft international sales for Superman were expected but still below expectations, but word-of-mouth is tremendously positive, especially for key demographics that could help stave off large weekly drops in the second and third weekends.
By midweek, we’re now looking at a first-week cume of approximately $310 million heading into second weekend for Superman, with indicators pointing to a healthy $55 million North American gross and perhaps another $4o million overseas.
That would help Superman gain altitude into $400 million territory, a good place to be and a sign $500+ million feels more and more assured.
Higher end outcomes could push Superman to $320 million ahead of Friday, and see an additional $60 million domestic and $50 million internationally, for a $430 million (or more) finish on Sunday.
On the flip side for a low-end result for Superman, recall how Jurassic World: Rebirth held much better than anticipated last weekend and is already north of $540 million worldwide, despite those weak audience B grades and unenthusiastic critical reception. The film could threaten to steal the top spot on weekday box office charts, particularly internationally, if Superman doesn’t keep his powers at full throttle. Smurfs is another potential challenger for family ticket dollars, but that low-budget animated release already looks dead on arrival.
If that happens, and if Superman looks to be losing any steam with family ticket-buyers on Wednesday Thursday, then we could see a more modest $295 million worldwide total heading into a more typical (or higher) second week drop.
Subsequently, a $50 million domestic and $35 million foreign result (assuming low-end outcomes) adds up to just $395 million after weekend #2, and Superman would be in danger of failing to reach $500 million by the end of its run, as weekend #3 sees Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps taking charge of the box office for a while. The loss of key demographics at that point means Jurassic World might hold well enough again to pass Superman at the weekend box office at that point.
I don’t expect any worst-case scenarios like that, but it’s also not great that a couple of entirely plausible factors could be enough to slow Superman down and derail the DCU celebration. Because like it or not, the film’s budget and marketing cost about $350 million, the studios get less than half of the box office revenue, and that means… yeah, $700 million isn’t just some random number I picked from thin air a week or so ago.
As I’ve explained before, box office alone isn’t the only relevant factor here, and the math can be complicated, and Superman mostly needs to get good audience and critical reactions while hitting a box office number that defied the DCEU’s final nine movies – $500 million.
Whatever else matters and whatever else you’ve heard, it’s a fact that box office matters a lot and is treated as a barometer of success, and will drive the narrative around the film and the DCU’s future.
So Superman needs $500 million, and even better $600 million. They won’t just shut down or shelve/cancel ongoing productions if Superman only makes $495 million (again, a highly unlikely worst-case scenario), but they’d certainly make adjustments to those projects and have serious discussions about how to proceed next. I simply don’t believe it’s credible to think WBD executives won’t intervene if Superman fails to maintain altitude north of $495 million.
And why keep bringing up hypothetical failure scenarios? Because, as I’ve said all along, a worst-case scenario in which things start going wrong enough to change the outcome still puts the film at $495 million, a bad number but just a few million from $500 million “moral victory” territory needed to treat Superman as having crossed the threshold needed to hold steady and proceed with DCU plans as-is.
Finishing at a more moderate level instantly pushes Superman toward a final number closer to $600+ million, where I feel it’s destined to wind up.
What’s most likely for Superman in coming days is $310-315 million cume through Thursday, around $57 million domestic weekend and about $42 million international, totaling roughly $410-415 million through close of business Sunday. That trajectory would in turn suggests a finish of $550-575 million as a moderate outcome, or $600 million range if it continues to hold better. I don’t really see $700 million in the cards for Superman unless international steps up more than it has so far, but this is still early in the first week so anything is still possible.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2025/07/16/superman-tops-tuesday-box-office-with-big-17-million-domestic-haul/