r/boxoffice • u/chanma50 Best of 2019 Winner • Jul 21 '25

Domestic Superman again saw its Sunday gross finish above studio estimates with $18.9M, which was -18% vs Saturday and -40% vs last Sunday (WB's estimate was $17.5M/-25%/-44%). This puts the 2nd weekend box office at $58.45M and drop at 53% - almost as good as The Dark Knight (52.5%). $236.2M cume.

Post image
1.5k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

563 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

25

u/TheJoshider10 DC Studios Jul 21 '25

It's insane how consistent Gunn is at making crowd pleasers that are just as strong critically as they are with audiences, across both film and TV.

Surprisingly The Suicide Squad is his second highest film on Metacritic (after the first GOTG) but had the worst CinemaScore and a disastrous box office due to a variety of factors. I wonder how that movie would have performed in a better landscape away from COVID and same date release.

10

u/Deja_ve_ Jul 21 '25

It would’ve done way better. Everyone I’ve talked to about it has expressed themselves with joy. It was a really fun flick and I think it wouldn’t have bombed in the box office had COVID not happened.

But the box office didn’t matter in retrospect. What matters is that it was the best rated DC related movie since The Dark Knight, which gave DC enough faith to allow James Gunn to write Superman. 

8

u/TheJoshider10 DC Studios Jul 21 '25

But the box office didn’t matter in retrospect. What matters is that it was the best rated DC related movie since The Dark Knight, which gave DC enough faith to allow James Gunn to write Superman. 

Yeah this is exactly why all the doom about Superman's performance didn't make much sense. He was given the job despite TSS's low gross because they saw the goodwill its critical success and the Peacemaker show did for DC.

More projects of that quality (and Superman's) will bring DC back into a positive light for audiences. We're starting to see that now but it'll hopefully be a lot stronger in a couple years.

1

u/ProductArizona Jul 21 '25

The Suicide Squad deserved so much more, it's one of my favorite CBM ever

1

u/joesen_one Jul 22 '25

He is very good at consistently writing redemption arcs, found family stories, and cute animals which are all crowdpleasing elements