That didn’t go too well, did it? Supergirl not just bombed, it tanked. The opening weekend was a disappointment, and then the second week cratered with a 76% drop-off in sales. That’s the last thing that the DC Universe needed with its second film in the canon. What happened? How did it go so bad so quickly? Beyond that, what should be the takeaway for Warner Bros? Beyond that, what should the takeaway be for the film industry in general?
For starters, Supergirl was not the right character at the right time for this universe. She has never really been a crowd pleaser, even in animated form. One of the bigger pieces of Superman-related media was the animated series from the ’90s that was done by Bruce Timm. His DC Animated Universe introduced her in Superman: The Animated Series and eventually carried her over into Justice League Unlimited. Her character wasn’t that great and was never interesting enough to carry her own episodes.
In terms of live-action, there was the Supergirl series that debuted on CBS in 2015. That lasted all of one season before being booted to the CW. There, it earned itself a decent six-season run, but the fact that CBS didn’t find it strong enough for its network was a telltale sign. She functions best as a supporting character. Maybe if she had a stronger presence before having her own film, we’d be having a different conversation now. But the fact of the matter is, no one was really asking to see a Supergirl movie right now. And especially in the style of James Gunn.
What Went Wrong?
That’s kind of a funny thing to say considering that Gunn didn’t write or direct Supergirl. You’d be forgiven, though, if you didn’t realize that from the trailers. Guardians of the Galaxy kind of codified what a James Gunn film is. A lot of films have tried to ape that style since, and very few, if any, have been successful. Milly Alcock‘s portrayal of Supergirl seems to reek of Gunn’s style, at least in the trailers. Which is what matters when it comes to getting audiences into the theater. She’s irreverent, cynical, and a disheveled mess. We’ve seen this before, and we know the routine. Mix in Gunn’s trademark, “can’t let anything get too serious without unnecessary humor,” and we know what we’re in for.
Again, that’s all perception even before the film is rolling. Gunn didn’t create this film, but his fingerprints are all over it. Arguably, fans are getting tired of his schtick. Incidentally, the story here is closer in nature to the classic western, True Grit. The film drew inspiration from the comic mini-series, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and its True Grit influences resonated in the film. That’s not quite the film anyone wanted or expected, though. It was a gamble, and a big one with a $170 million budget attached. Those are massively high stakes. They’re also absurd ones when you have a film like Obsession making over $400 million on a budget of $750,000.
Are Superhero Movies Over?
Superhero fatigue is a real thing. But it more specifically applies to certain heroes and certain types of movies. Superman is a harder sell than other heroes. Gunn’s 2025 Superman cost $225 million to make. It made back $618 million. That’s a profit, but not nearly as much as Warner Bros. wanted. Remember, Man of Steel made roughly the same amount with around the same budget back in 2013. Adjusting for inflation, Gunn’s Superman pulled in fewer viewers with higher expectations.
One of the reasons Marvel was able to throw any superhero it wanted on the screen and make a billion dollars pre-COVID was partly because of momentum. They had a good thing going leading up to the conflict with Thanos. The overarching story made each film feel like it had weight to it as part of a bigger picture. Marvel doesn’t really have that now, and DC sure as hell doesn’t either. If you want to bring superheroes to the screen, you have to be a lot more selective.
Better Possible Moves
Perhaps the smartest move the DCU is making is with its upcoming Clayface movie. It’s taking a villain that people know and leaning into the body horror element of it. Thus, we’re getting a Batman-related movie that’s getting firmly rooted in a specific horror genre. They’re also doing it all for a reported budget of around $40 million. If it does fail, it doesn’t have nearly as much to lose as Supergirl did. That’s a welcome proposition and one that should be a template for the future.
The industry in general needs more films that stick to their guns at being a concentrated genre film. If you make a movie that caters to a certain type of fan, and they love it, the word of mouth will attract other people. Obsession was a perfect example of this. It’s a horror movie with a simple premise, and word of mouth brought movie fans in general into the theater. Clayface has the potential to do that in a way that The Substance did as well. But with this being a Batman villain, it can pull in even more people.
Excess Baggage
This can be done too with a lot of other characters and franchises that don’t have preexisting baggage attached to them. If the audience doesn’t have any expectations or preconceived notions, you can work with that. For example, DC has a detective character called The Question. He has been vastly underutilized in media outside of an amazing turn in the DCAU. He’s a reporter/detective with a faceless mask. He’s basically the inspiration for Rorschach from Watchmen. Make a gritty film noir around him that leans hard into solving a mystery that the audience can invest in. Do that on a small to midsize budget, and you’ve got yourself a film.
Take the character of Deathstroke and put him against the Teen Titans. Make it a stylized action movie that lets Deathstroke show off his combat abilities. Put him in a position where he’s hired to take down a target, but the Teen Titans are getting in the way of his goals. Shifting the focus to a villain protagonist in a John Wick-type film could do well for that character. And again, bring down the budget so that if it doesn’t hit the way you want it to, you don’t lose nearly as much. Supergirl might be a bad movie regardless, but it would’ve been less of a financial fiasco with a smaller budget.
What We Learned From Supergirl
Those are lessons that all studios can take from this.
- You can make good movies on smaller budgets.
- Stop making films that you “think” are for general audiences and lack a genre identity.
- Work with characters and stories that have fewer expectations and baggage attached to them.
Maybe, if production companies stuck to those rules a little harder, they could save themselves millions. They’d also save us from watching boring crap that feels like it has no soul.
