Key Takeaways
Total 3-Day Weekend Gross:
$197,434,561 | +21.5% Last Week / +37.7% Weekend 28, 2024
After weeks of the overall box office trailing 2024 on a weekend-by-weekend basis, Superman provided a +37% boost year-over-year as well as a win on the board for DC movies after delivering nothing but stiffs since their last hit in 2019 (Shazam!). James Gunn’s new take on the Man of Steel appears to be a hit on all three major levels (box office, critical, audience), and can hopefully maintain for the remainder of the summer while also paving the way for next year’s Supergirl as well as all the other downstream titles in the DCU slate.
- Top Title: Superman (Warner Bros.) | $122M / 4,135 Screens / $29,504 PSA | Week 1
- Top Opener: Superman (Warner Bros.) | $122M / 4,135 Screens / $29,504 PSA | Week 1
- Best PSA: Superman (Warner Bros.) | $122M / 4,135 Screens / $29,504 PSA | Week 1
Highlights From the Weekend
1. Superman
Warner Bros. | NEW
$122M 3-Day Domestic Opening Weekend | $217M Global Total
Warner Bros. can breathe a sigh of relief as their new batch of DC Comics movies got off to a good start with James Gunn’s Superman. The reboot, which drops audiences straight into the fresh cinematic universe without having to retread into origin stories, earned an estimated $122M from 4,135 domestic screens for a $29,504 Per Screen Average. That gives Warner Bros. the biggest superhero opening of 2025 as well as the studio’s 6th #1 opening of the year and their 5th $45M+ opening in a row, a first for any studio. It is also above Man of Steel‘s $116.6M debut from over a decade ago, although Batman v Superman still holds the best opening for a Superman movie unadjusted ($166M).
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including a year’s best $22.5M in Thursday previews, which is slightly below Superman franchise-best Batman v Superman‘s Thursday ($27.7M)…
- Friday – $56.1M
- Saturday – $37.7M
- Sunday – $28.2M
Premium formats accounted for 47% of business, including strong results from Dolby Cinema, PLF/Premium Large Formats, and Motion Seating. IMAX in particular brought in $19.1M domestically, accounting for 15.6% of the opening on 419 screens, with $30.4M altogether worldwide for the popular format.
Superman – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Locations – North America
1. AMC Burbank
2. AMC Lincoln Square New York
3. Regal Irvine Spectrum Los Angeles
4. AMC Empire New York
5. AMC Disney Springs Orlando
6. Regal Edwards Marq’E Houston
7. AMC Universal Citywalk Los Angeles
8. AMC Garden State New York
9. Regal Kendall Village Miami
10. Regal Atlantic Station Atlanta
Superman – Opening Weekend
Top Ten DMAs – North America
1. Los Angeles
2. New York
3. Dallas
4. Chicago
5. San Francisco
6. Houston
7. Washington DC
8. Toronto
9. Atlanta
10. Philadelphia
Gunn’s movie is rocking an 82% Certified Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a significant improvement over the three prior DCEU Superman movies, which were all rotten tomatoes. That’s also the same score as Gunn’s third Guardians movie for Marvel, but below the first two Guardians (92% & 85%) and The Suicide Squad (90%). Audiences warmed to David Corenswet’s new iteration of the Man of Steel as well, giving the movie a 93% audience score, an “A-” CinemaScore (“A” from under 25’s), and 4 ½ out of 5 via PostTrak (parents gave it 5 out of 5, kids 4.5).
Here’s how demographics looked…
- 51% Caucasian
- 22% Hispanic
- 14% African-American
- 8% Asian
- 5% Native-American/Other
Overall, Gunn and DC Studios’ strategy to take the brand away from grimdark depictions towards a more colorful/hopeful tone has ultimately paid off. This was the same creative strategy that helped elevate the DCEU’s biggest success, Aquaman, in 2018 ($1.14B), as well as a bulk of Marvel Studios’ major winners, including those made by Gunn. Heroic deconstruction and dark mythmaking appeal to hardcore fans, whereas general audiences were clearly attracted to the stalwart optimism of this new Superman. Arguably, more is riding on the second weekend hold, although with this kind of exit polling, word of mouth should continue to drive business.
Although Superman‘s domestic performance across the board was better than Jurassic World Rebirth‘s opening last frame ($91.5M), it could not top that movie’s international appeal (Superman identifies as American iconography, dinos less so). The DC movie opened to an estimated $95M on 50,000+ overseas screens in 78 markets for a global haul of $217M vs Rebirth‘s $318.3M. Considering Aquaman, Justice League, and BvS all did nearly 2X more business overseas, these numbers could be better… though perhaps this is the kind of title where domestic carries the slack.
Superman – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Overseas Markets
United Kingdom | $9.8m
Mexico | $8.8m
Brazil | $5.9m
Australia | $5.3m
China | $6.6m
France | $4.2m
Korea | $4.2m
India | $3.8m
Spain | $2.9m
Japan | $2.5m
Other Notable Performances
Last week’s champ Jurassic World Rebirth took a -57% sophomore hit for an estimated $40M Frame 2 with a PSA of $9,251 in 4,324 locations (almost 200 more than Superman). That takes domestic $232.1M and global earnings at $529.46M. Domestically the seventh movie in the series is now ahead of The Lost World ($229M) and Jurassic Park III ($181.16M).
Next Weekend
After Sony delivered two live-action Smurfs entries as well as a 2017 animated film, Paramount has swooped in with an animated reboot titled simply Smurfs. Although the previous three theatrical features were released to diminishing returns, this one features a fun voice cast including Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, and Dan Levy.
On the horror end of the spectrum we have Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt returning for the legacy sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is clearly hoping to capture the same slasher nostalgia as the recent Scream sequels even though the I Know What Amazon Prime series from 2021 failed to take off. A24 is adding to next week’s roster with Eddington, a neo-western headlined by Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, directed by Ari Aster.
Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 28 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $197,434,561 | (+37.7% vs 2024)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| Superman | $122,000,000 | 4,135 | $29,504 | 122,000,000 | 1 | Warner Bros. | ||
| Jurassic World Rebirth | $40,000,000 | -57% | 4,324 | 16 | $9,251 | 232,114,000 | 2 | Universal |
| F1: The Movie | $13,000,000 | -50% | 3,412 | -320 | $3,810 | 136,195,000 | 3 | Warner Bros. |
| How to Train Your Dragon | $7,800,000 | -31% | 3,285 | -429 | $2,374 | 239,808,000 | 5 | Universal |
| Elio | $3,900,000 | -33% | 2,730 | -505 | $1,429 | 63,666,191 | 4 | Walt Disney |
| 28 Years Later | $2,725,000 | -40% | 2,208 | -709 | $1,234 | 65,737,000 | 4 | Sony Pictures |
| Lilo & Stitch | $2,700,000 | -32% | 2,075 | -485 | $1,301 | 414,564,677 | 8 | Walt Disney |
| Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning | $1,450,000 | -47% | 1,132 | -413 | $1,281 | 194,007,000 | 8 | Paramount Pi… |
| M3GAN 2.0 | $1,350,000 | -66% | 1,658 | -1,475 | $814 | 22,373,000 | 3 | Universal |
| Materialists | $720,498 | -46% | 589 | -438 | $1,223 | 35,172,974 | 5 | A24 |
| Sorry, Baby | $230,328 | 69% | 40 | 26 | $5,758 | 599,574 | 3 | A24 |
| The Phoenician Scheme | $220,000 | -48% | 205 | -97 | $1,073 | 19,105,000 | 7 | Focus Features |
| From the World of John Wick: Ballerina | $200,000 | -73% | 299 | -624 | $669 | 57,862,000 | 6 | Lionsgate |
| Final Destination: Bloodlines | $189,000 | -47% | 119 | -251 | $1,588 | 137,953,000 | 9 | Warner Bros. |
| Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story | $130,013 | 470 | $277 | 130,013 | 1 | IFC Entertai… | ||
| The Life of Chuck | $103,250 | -59% | 171 | -70 | $604 | 6,366,714 | 6 | Neon |
| Sinners | $56,000 | -64% | 68 | -102 | $824 | 278,541,000 | 13 | Warner Bros. |
| Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight | $36,000 | 4 | $9,000 | 36,000 | 1 | Sony Picture… | ||
| Thunderbolts* | $9,000 | -81% | 25 | -45 | $360 | 189,941,226 | 11 | Walt Disney |
| To a Land Unknown | $4,763 | 3 | $1,588 | 4,763 | 1 | Watermelon P… |
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