‘Supergirl’ Is Struggling Worldwide and Its International Numbers Are the Most Alarming Part
The DCU’s second theatrical chapter arrived with a lot riding on it. ‘Supergirl’, directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, stars Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El on a cosmic journey of vengeance and justice, with Jason Momoa making his franchise debut as galactic bounty hunter Lobo. The film was positioned as proof that the momentum James Gunn and Peter Safran built with ‘Superman’ last summer could carry into a broader, riskier corner of the DCU. That proof is not materializing the way the studio had hoped.
‘Superman’ earned $22 million in previews when it opened last year and went on to gross $125 million in its initial weekend before ultimately earning $618.7 million globally. The bar it set was formidable, and ‘Supergirl’ was never expected to clear it entirely. What no one anticipated was quite how far the second entry would fall short, both at home and especially abroad.
Domestically, according to Deadline, ‘Supergirl’ is now on track to gross just $40 million domestically in its first three days, opening below previous DC disappointments like ‘The Flash’. But as box office tracker Luiz Fernando noted on X, the international picture is where things get genuinely alarming. Overseas markets added just $5.7 million on Friday across 78 territories, bringing the five-day international cumulative to $11.1 million. Combined with its $18 million Friday at the domestic box office, the film’s global opening is now projected to land somewhere between $62 million and $77 million, well below the $80 million-plus global launch the studio had been targeting.
In Japan specifically, ‘Supergirl’ earned around $380,000 on its first Friday, placing it among the weakest Friday debuts for a DC film in the country over the last 13 years. The film could not even claim the top spot there, blocked by competition from another release. The film carries a reported budget of $170 million, and industry sources suggest it will need to earn roughly $300 million worldwide to be considered a victory by Warner Bros. standards. That finish line is looking increasingly distant.
Critical reception has not helped generate the word-of-mouth the film desperately needs. ‘Supergirl’ holds a “rotten” 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 148 reviews, compared to ‘Creature Commandos’ at 95%, ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 at 94%, and last year’s ‘Superman’ at 83%. The near-universal consensus from critics is that Alcock herself is a genuine bright spot, with Digital Spy’s Ian Sandwell noting she manages to turn themes of grief and belonging into something affecting, while USA Today’s Brian Truitt praised her performance, and The Hollywood Reporter suggested audiences invested in the DCU would be best to hold out for Gunn’s return to the director’s chair on next year’s ‘Man of Tomorrow’.
The audience score tells a different story, landing at 77%, suggesting a meaningful gap between how critics and general viewers responded to the film. That divide may offer some cushion, but it is unlikely to be enough on its own. DC Studios has pointed to a promotional partner campaign that generated more than $100 million in media value, described as the largest in the brand’s history, which could meaningfully lower the real-world break-even threshold.
The bigger question now is what this means for the DCU’s near-term future. Milly Alcock is set to reprise the role in 2027’s ‘Man of Tomorrow’, and upcoming releases including ‘Clayface’ and ‘The Brave and the Bold’ will need to perform at a higher level if the franchise is going to build lasting momentum. Alcock’s Kara Zor-El is clearly not going anywhere, but whether she gets another solo film may now depend on how decisively the DCU can course-correct from here. Where do you think the DCU goes from this point, and does ‘Supergirl’s’ performance change how excited you are for ‘Clayface’ and ‘Man of Tomorrow’?
