DC Studios co-chair Peter Safran wasted no time in spinning the disastrous $68M worldwide debut of Supergirl last weekend. Speaking with The New York Times, Safran said…
“While ‘Supergirl’ didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in.”
I mean, that’s true. Supergirl is just one piece of the DCU puzzle and only the second movie following Superman, which performed well last summer. So anyone trying to write off what Safran and James Gunn are doing, should probably take a breath and chill out.
The real issue with Supergirl, in my opinion, was timing. I think it put a ton of pressure on Supergirl to be a success because it’s coming so early in the overall strategy. They probably should’ve waited until after Superman: Man of Tomorrow, which opens next year. The DCU would likely be on more solid footing.
I don’t have the same concerns about Clayface, which opens this October. The body horror flick, centered on a popular Batman villain, only cost $45M and could catch on with fans of the genre who don’t give a crap about superheroes at all. If Supergirl had cost $45M, it would be seen as a modest hit right now.
Other Supergirl missteps I made sure to include in my review. The biggest was the hiring of Craig Gillespie, a solid director who does not have an action background, and it showed. The closest he’s come to a hit movie was Disney’s Cruella in 2021, which made $233M. I’d argue that film would’ve done that much no matter the director.
I don’t agree with NYT’s assessment that “female-led superhero movies have been rejected”, because that’s not true. Sure, The Marvels and Madame Web did really badly, but those were awful movies that were trashed up and down by everyone. But Captain Marvel made $1.1B in 2019, and Wonder Woman $824M in 2017, so it’s more about quality than anything.
Sure, misogyny is part of the equation, and given the cruel reviews by some critics getting their kicks bashing star Milly Alcock, it likely impacted Supergirl to some degree. But that’s not enough to sink a movie this much. It failed because of an overall lack of interest in the character, middling trailers, a lack of star power in front of and behind the camera, and poor timing.
