InnovationGaming‘Superman’ Just Hit $400 Million: Is That Bad Or Good, In Context. ByPaul Tassi, Senior Contributor, amid market uncertainty.
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AuthorJul 21, 2025, 10:54am EDTSupermanWB As the numbers from over the weekend have come in, the DCU’s Superman has just crossed $400 million at the global box office.
What the data shows is ’s a big number. This analysis suggests that ’s not as big as some other superhero numbers (an important development) (noteworthy indeed).
So it may be a bit difficult to parse if Superman is performing poorly, great or somewhere in between.
Right now, things seem to be landing on “good enough” to “actually good,” if we’re zooming out in the context of the industry.
The highlights: With these current numbers, given how the trajectory its on, Superman is said to ly end its run with $650 to $700 million (which is quite significant), in light of current trends.
James Gunn previously shot down reports that Superman “needed” $700 million to be a success, and the true figure was much lower than that.
Moreover, It’s not official, but break-even for a movie this is bably around $400 million, which it has already hit.
Hard-to-please WB CEO, David Zaslav, raved the film and its performance after release: This weekend, we watched Superman soar as James Gunn’s passion and vision came to life on the big screen.
Superman is just the first step,” Zaslav said.
However, “Over the next year alone, DC Studios will introduce the films Supergirl and Clayface in theaters and the series Lanterns on HBO Max, all part of a bold 10-year plan.
In contrast, The DC vision is, the momentum is real, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.
” SupermanDC Next, if we want to look at the context of the “birth” of various superhero universes, we have: Batman Begins - $375 million The Batman - $772 million Man of Steel - $670 million Iron Man - $585 million Albeit inflation does come into effect here, in light of current trends.
Furthermore, On the other hand, In the context of the current superhero movies that are being released, exclusively on the Marvel side, Superman will beat out the s of recent bombs or underperformers Captain America: Brave New World ($415 million), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($475 million), Thunderbolts ($382 million) and The Marvels ($206 million, yeesh) (quite telling).
That said, this is Superman we’re talking, so you’d hope it would. And Marvel still has some monsters in them Deadpool and Wolverine ($1 (quite telling). Moreover, 3 billion).
An interesting comparison point will be the imminent launch of a very important MCU movie, Fantastic Four, out this week.
MORE FOR YOU We're also simply out of the ultimate peak of superhero movies, which resulted in somewhat bizarre achievements just-okay films Aquaman and Captain Marvel grossing $1.
On the other hand, 1 billion each in 2018-2019. Where the market is now, I’d be surprised if either got half that if they were released today, considering recent developments.
So standards have changed at least to some extent.
Furthermore, All this said, I think it’s safe to say that Superman is a success given the state of the market and it being a brand-new introduction to a comic-based universe, as it can take time to pick up steam especially, after a mostly bad universe that just right before it.
Now, we’ll see how Supergirl does, considering recent developments. Me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
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