Supergirl is set to become the latest giant flop in the DC franchise that’s already home to such box office blunders as Joker 2, Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle; and we’re betting you’ve probably only even heard of one of those movies.
DC had been on a downward spiral for years, even more so than Marvel’s latest era which has also disappointed in the past few years after once being a behemoth in Hollywood and changing the face of cinema-going for well over a decade.
But things looked like they might be back on an upward trajectory last year when Superman hit cinemas and became a hit with critics and audiences alike, a rare feat for a superhero movie.
So all eyes were set on Supergirl to carry the torch home, and cement the new iteration of the once beloved franchise as a box office king (and queen).
Sadly for producer James Gunn, Supergirl is set to lose Warner Bros upwards of US$200 million during its theatrical run.
Set in outer space, Supergirl finds Lara Zor-El (Alcock) on an interstellar path of vengeance and justice when a vicious attack by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) on an innocent family hits too close to home.
Tracking for the movie originally had it opening as high as $70-80 million just a few months ago, but that’s now dropped to the disastrous possibility of it limping to half of that.
For comparison, Toy Story 5 opened to over $140 million just a week ago, and surprise horror hit Obsession – made for less than $1 million – is set to blast close to $300 million by the time it’s out of cinemas.
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It makes the outlook for Supergirl, in a year that’s been such a comeback for the box office, even more disappointing.
Supergirl’s debut is on par with the box office collapse of infamous DC flop 2023’s The Flash and significantly trails its predecessor, Superman, which opened to $125 million domestically and grossed over $618 million worldwide.
While analysts are suggesting that it’s yet another metaphorical knife into the heart of The Golden Age of the Superhero Blockbuster, it would be a little premature to quite put it out to pasture just yet.
But it’s not that it’s only genre movies that are smashing out of the gate, it’s low to mid-budget genre films primarily aimed at women that are hitting it out of the park in an era when blockbusters aimed at men are struggling.
It was clear that movie studios saw Marvel hitting it out the park and immediately once hugely popular genres like romantic comedies, teen dramas and romance became a thing of the past. Guns and cheesy one liners were in, and original stories based around women were no longer in vogue. But instead, it led to movie goers having been starved of mid-budget films like smashes The Housemaid, Obsession, Reminders Of Him and Hugh Jackman’s latest surprise hit The Sheep Detectives that all target an audience that tends to lean more women, than Supergirl; which, despite it’s title, still firmly sees the gender as an afterthought. It’s almost as if so-called niche audiences will show up with their wallets when they actually feel represented instead of tokenised.
Shocking, we know.
Originally published as As Supergirl bombs at the box office, will Hollywood execs fail to learn the correct lesson?
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