There's no denying that Supergirl is currently flopping at the box office, but following yesterday's initial results, the DCU movie's opening weekend take has been confirmed, and it's actually doing worse than we first thought.
On Monday, June 29, many outlets reported that Supergirl had earned $38 million in the US over opening weekend. However, now it looks like the superhero film only scraped $37.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
That means that Milly Alcock's first outing as Kara Zor-El is not only doing worse than Sony's Spider-Man spin-off Morbius, which is widely known as one of the worst superhero movies ever, but also DC's Joker 2. Officially titled Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel opened to $37.6 million and scored a measly 31% on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is a pretty hard knock for James Gunn's new DC, as Supergirl is just the second movie in DCU Chapter One. But, the team still seems confident in their overall plan. On June 28, DC Studios co-head Peter Safran made a statement, telling The New York Times, "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."
It is not clear why Supergirl is flopping so hard. Yes, it is true that the movie has opened to mixed reviews, and is not as widely loved as last year's Superman, which opened to $125 million domestically and went on to gross over $618 million worldwide. But the film's mediocre 56% score on RT is not the worst in the world. However, many fans are complaining about the lacklustre storyline and one questionable needle drop.
If Supergirl continues to underperform in this way, it will prove to be a loss for the studio. The movie cost around $170 million to make and perhaps tens of millions more to market, which means that the film will have to see a pretty steep incline in ticket sales over the coming weeks. But at this point, that seems unlikely.
Supergirl is out in theaters now. For more, check out our Supergirl review and our guide to all the upcoming DC movies and shows.
