The immense pressure on the box office performance of James Gunn's Superman has not exactly been a secret. A DC franchise reboot has been in the works now for two years – through the memorable flops of the final four DCEU titles that were released in 2023 – and the latest movie about the last son of Krypton was given the responsibility of getting audiences around the globe excited about what's in the works for DC Studios' nascent DC Universe. With whispers of "superhero fatigue" wafting around for the past year-plus, there were big question marks leading up to this past Friday.
Now, the dust has cleared, and it can be said with certainty that three days into its release, Superman is a hit, the film arrived on the heels of Gareth Edwards' Jurassic World: Rebirth and easily took over the number one spot at the weekend box office with what is on the books as the third biggest debut in 2025. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Superman* | $122,000,000 | $122,000,000 | N/A | 4,135 |
2. Jurassic World Rebirth | $40,000,000 | $232,114,000 | 1 | 4,324 |
3. F1 | $13,000,000 | $136,195,000 | 2 | 3,412 |
4. How To Train Your Dragon | $7,800,000 | $239,808,000 | 3 | 3,285 |
5. Elio | $3,900,000 | $63,666,191 | 4 | 2,730 |
6. 28 Years Later | $2,725,000 | $65,737,000 | 5 | 2,208 |
7. Lilo & Stitch | $2,700,000 | $414,564,677 | 7 | 2,075 |
8. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | $1,450,000 | $194,007,000 | 8 | 1,132 |
9. M3GAN 2.0 | $1,350,000 | $22,373,000 | 6 | 1,658 |
10. Materialists | $720,498 | $35,172,974 | 9 | 589 |
Superman Has A High Flying Weekend While Not Quite Being Able To Break 2025 Records
A nine-figure opening weekend has become a rarity. While it was a relatively common occurrence prior to 2020, that is something that has greatly changed about movie-going culture in the third decade of the 21st century. As such, it's worth taking notice when a new release hits that high, and Superman is just the third title to accomplish that feat on the 2025 movie calendar so far.
The latest DC blockbuster wasn't quite about to reach the high bar set earlier this year by Jared Hess' A Minecraft Movie ($162.8 million) and it wasn't able to snatch the silver medal away from Dean Fleisher Camp's Lilo & Stitch ($146 million), but the $122 million made by Superman domestically in its first Friday-to-Sunday – per The Numbers – is nonetheless significant. For example, it's notably the biggest start for a superhero movie so far this year, as neither Julius Onah's Captain America: Brave New World nor Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts* were able to achieve anywhere near the same level of buzz.
For James Gunn personally, it's a significant success, as its the second best debut for one of his films, the only movie of his performing better in its debut being 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (which made $146.5 million). It should also go without saying that this is a massive turnaround from the opening weekends of DC movies in 2023. In fact, all four of those films made just $137.9 collectively in their respective opening weekends. It's a big bounce back for the brand.
It obviously helps that the titular character is one of the most beloved heroes in the history of pop culture... but the film has also been the recipient of brilliant and positive buzz. I personally gave Superman four-and-a-half stars in my CinemaBlend review, and other critics have been effusive about the big screen launch of the DC Universe. Audiences are very happy as well: surveys distributed by CinemaScore have returned an "A-" grade, which matches the score of Zack Snyder's Man of Steel from 2013 and improves on the grades received by other recent Kal-El adventures, including Snyder's Justice League (B+), Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (B), and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (B+).
Thus far, Superman is performing better domestically than it is abroad, but the movie is nonetheless making money overseas. Pairing with the $122 million the film has made in the United States and Canada, it has also made $95 million overseas, bringing its worldwide ticket sale gross to date to $217 million. That means it has already outgrossed the full theatrical run of Marc Webb's Snow White ($205.7 million) and it has already claimed the position of being the thirteenth biggest movie of the year. It will only need to make about $58 million more to climb another rung up the ladder and surpass the earnings of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's Final Destination: Bloodlines ($285 million).
Of course, not to be ignored in the conversation here is that Superman was a very expensive movie to make, as Variety reports a production budget of $225 million – which doesn't include marketing and publicity (and those efforts have not exactly been minimal). Still, things right now point toward the James Gunn film being a big hit and a successful launch for the DC Universe. All signs currently point to it having a good second weekend as well, and if the good vibes keep going and buzz is positive, we may have a "high tide raises all ships" situation with the pending debut of Matt Shakman's Fantastic Four: First Steps (hopefully we will end July celebrating the epic awesomeness of SuperFantastic).
Jurassic World: Rebirth Takes A Big Drop At The Box Office... But Things Could Be Worse
While there was some consternation regarding just how well Superman would perform in its opening weekend, there was no doubt that it would open in first place... and it left us wondering just how well Jurassic World: Rebirth would do in second. Both titles are viewed as four quadrant blockbusters looking to attract the same audience, so there were questions about how one might steal attention from the other. With the numbers it, it can be said that predictions were correct – but the news for the dinosaur tentpole feature isn't as bad as it could have been.
Weekend-to-weekend, Jurassic World: Rebirth saw its ticket sales drop 57 percent, the Universal Pictures release adding $40 million to its domestic earnings. Despite being expected, that's not great on paper... but for what it's worth, the drop isn't as bad as what Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World: Dominion went through in June 2022, as that movie saw its domestic numbers fall 59 percent (and it didn't even have Superman-sized competition to blame as it maintained its position in first place.
The latest Jurassic movie remains on pace to make less than the three previous Jurassic World titles, which have seen earnings decrease since 2015. So far, the 2025 blockbuster has made $232. 1 million domestically and $529.5 million worldwide. It has already successfully escaped the basement of the franchise by outgrossing Joe Johnston's Jurassic Park III ($395.9 million) and it will need to make $90 million more to surpass the earnings of Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($618.6 million – not adjusted for inflation).
How will the two big blockbusters now playing on the big screen fare when going up against both Ari Aster's Eddington and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's legacyquel I Know What You Did Last Summer? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for our full analysis of the box office results.
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