It’s fair to say that Supergirl has officially flopped on its opening weekend and now we have DC boss Peter Safran’s comments on that box office failure. As we covered last week, reviews for Supergirl were not good, with critics generally disliking it and less picky audiences not loving it either. I’ve not seen the film myself yet, therefore I make no comments on the quality of the film from my own opinion.
Either way, even though the film had a modest $170m budget, the expectation was at least to make their money back. Add in marketing and I would guess $300m would turn a slight profit. However, the film opened with only $38M domestically and $68m globally and is forecast to struggle to make $200m by the end of its run.
It’s also worth remembering that despite a much more marketable character and much better reviews, Superman itself didn’t set the box office alight last Summer. Therefore, surely questions will begin to be asked by those who sit above DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran?
Clayface cost buttons and won’t need much to turn a profit, but will it enamour fans to the franchise anymore? I think if Man of Tomorrow isn’t a big hit, the franchise may not survive to get Batman in it.
Speaking with NYT recently 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.”
RELATED: Supergirl Currently Rotten On RT And Audience Score Not Much Better – Bad Signs For New DCU
There also seems to be some chatter from the studio about toxicity, which seems to be the go to when a movie fails these days. However, perhaps studios need to understand their demographics more here. TheWrap reports that of those who saw Supergirl opening weekend in the US, 59% were male and 65% were over the age of 25. The lesson perhaps to take here is that young girls are not interested in Supergirl, or maybe even comic book movies in general? At least, not enough to be catered to.
That being said, I don’t buy this movie did bad because it starred a woman hero. I just don’t think Supergirl has ever been a draw outside comic book fans. I actually think the feel/tone used was actually trying to appeal to that male demographic all the time. It just didn’t connect and bad reviews really, really hurt movies more now than they used to.
In hindsight, I think Gunn and Safran should have focused on this year’s movie being Batman and then dropping Supergirl in January or February where there is not much competition. Of course, they didn’t have a script or any actor cast as Batman, but perhaps then they should have delayed the release of Superman until they could get Batman nailed.
I would not be surprised if The Batman Part II is more successful than Superman and Supergirl combined when it drops. Let us know what you think of Supergirl flopping and Peter Safran’s comments.
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