‘Superman’ opens to $217 million globally, DC’s biggest since ‘The Batman’

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the great blue hope of DC Studios!

Supermanthe first film under the comics giant’s newly rebranded media franchise, the DC Universesoared past expectations this weekend for a stellar $122 million open at the domestic box officeand $217 million globally. While that number comes up just short of the projection from the tracking mainstay the National Research Group — $125 million to $145 million domestic opening — it surpasses DC and distributor Warner Bros.‘ own projections of $90 million to $125 million. With an estimated budget of $225 million, Superman is poised to become profitable, even adjusting that number for marketing expenses, usually hidden from the publicly-available bottom line.

Placing the first new take on the last son of Krypton in over a decade in context shows just how welcome a boon Superman is to DC. The film’s opening take is the best since 2022’s The Batmanoutgrossed the supe’s last solo outing, Man of Steel ($116.6 million domestic premiere), and represents a greater sum than the lifetime grosses of a staggering six out of DC’s 10 most recent films. Blue Beetle, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squadand Birds of Prey all failed to cross $100 million in their domestic runs.

Superman director James Gunnproducer/DC co-head Peter Safran, and stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahanand Nicolas Hoult are currently sitting pretty, and it’s guilt-free to boot — their success didn’t come at the price of other film’s failures at the box office this weekend.

Jurassic World Rebirth dropped a respectable 57 percent in its second week of release, earning the second spot on the domestic and global leaderboards with $40 million and $108 million takes, respectively. Its global total has passed the half-million mark already, roughly in line with its predecessor, 2022’s Jurassic World Dominionwhich at this point in its domestic runhad grossed $250.2 million to Rebirth‘s $232.1 million. The combined star power of Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Baileyand Maharshala alihowever, couldn’t place Rebirth anywhere close to the franchise’s most profitable entry thus far, 2015’s Jurassic Worldwhich had grossed $402.8 million in its second week of release.

No other new releases made it onto the domestic or global box office top 10s this week, save the Chinese animated film Curious Tales of a Templewhich earned the last spot on the global chart with a $5.5 million open in Chinese theaters alone.

Elsewhere, the usual suspects all reprised their roles on previous editions of the box office report. F1: The Movie and How to Train Your Dragon snagged the third and fourth spots on both the domestic and global charts this weekend. Brad Pitt and Joseph Kosinski‘s racer took in $13 million domestically for a $136 million to-date gross, and the live-action remake of the 2010 animated classic took in $7.8 million domestically for an overall $239.0 million haul. Globally, F1 now boasts $393.3 million, while Dragon boasts $560.7 million.

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Pixar’s outer space animated adventure Elio continues its free fall after failing to obtain orbit with a dismal $21 million domestic–$35 million global opening weekend — the worst in the company’s history. No good news this weekend either, with the film only taking in $3.9 million domestically and $9.9 globally, though that does represent only a 31 percent drop from last weekend. Lilo & Stitch and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are also holding on in their eighth weeks of release, but while the former has long-since surpassed its budget, the latter is still fighting to cross into the black globally.

A clutch of films likely to make a splash at next weekend’s box office seem unlikely to unseat the combined power of Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth.

But if any genre can inflict a sudden upset, its horror, and next weekend sees the release of the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, starring Gen Z up-and-comers (Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders), who act as analogues the original stable of Gen X greatness (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewittwho reprises her role in the new film).

Paramount’s Smurfs movie may also prove a substantial theatrical draw, not just because children’s movies like Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie have done so well already this year, but because Smurfs features Rihanna‘s long-awaited return to entertainment.

Not likely to pose any serious challenge for the top spot, but good to keep your eye on for awards season, however, is Ari Aster’s Eddingtonan ensemble social farce starring Joaquin Phoenix Pedro Pascaland Emma Stone.