SUPERMAN opening | The Superman series | Where we are now | July 11 to 13, 2025 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary.
The current weekend: July 11 to 13, 2025
1) Superman opening
- This is an outstanding domestic opening for the 7th episode in a superhero story that's been filmed for over 75 years. The est. weekend figure is above average for the genre, and the average we’re referring to is a giant number — $113 million over 3 days.
The opening is also above the last start in the series, Superman: Man of Steel (June 2013, $117 million). Critics' reviews and audience scores are excellent (an A- CinemaScore).
If there’s any softness here, it’s overseas. Thus far, the foreign openings are not equal to domestic. Superman has always been identified as a quintessentially American character and story, and in some parts of the world, America is currently not enjoying its greatest popularity. The film has not opened in all markets and foreign audiences often start slower — we’ll see:
- Superman has had a long and sometimes tortured path on the big screen. In the modern era, five strong directors have put their stamp on it: Richard Donner, Richard Lester, Sidney Furie, Bryan Singer, and Zach Snyder. James Gunn, who wrote and directed this Superman, is an experienced superhero filmmaker, and it shows.
Mr. Gunn chose not to rely on big stars. The storytelling and filmmaking are doing the work here. This is the original, comic book hero story about a flawed and reluctant every-man who uses his special powers to fight evil. That arc is so reliable and relatable, it's the basis for a number of the biggest superhero pictures.
The Superman series
- In 1978, Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve’s Superman modernized the genre and finished with $300.5 million worldwide at the BO. Tickets cost $2.34 at the time, so adjusted for inflation, that was a $1.44 billion movie — a juggernaut.
Superman II came back strong 3 years later (Christopher Reeve again, directed by Richard Lester), but at the time there was less experience with franchise and episodic storytelling, and the series wore down quickly with #3 and #4.
- 19 years after that, Superman Returns did well in 2006 (Brandon Routh in the lead), and 7 years later Superman: Man of Steel did even better (now Henry Cavill). There was also a successful detour with Batman v. Superman in 2016 (Cavill, with Ben Affleck as Batman).
In spite of the starts and stops, extended gaps and detours, Superman remains a powerful draw. Superman and Batman were first; they're credited with starting the Golden Age of Comic Books in 1938 and 1939, respectively. These stories are going to be retold indefinitely:
- James Gunn and Peter Safran are now co-heads of DC Studios and responsible for all of the DC characters and stories. The next movies are Supergirl in June 2026 (shooting is complete), and Clayface currently dated in September 2026 (in pre-production).
This is a major slow-down in DC output, following 5 frenzied years from 2020 to 2024. We had a Joker, Aquaman, Blue Beetle, The Flash, Shazam!, Black Adam, The Batman, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman — too many pictures.
The appetite for superhero films is not what it was before the pandemic. DC Studios is on a slow and steady path now, and it looks sustainable.
Where we are now
- It's summertime and the big pictures are loud and visually dazzling: Superman, Jurassic, F1, and How Train Your Dragon, et al. Audiences want to be transported and taken away, and they’re getting what they want.
Next weekend has I Know What You Did Last Summer and a Smurfs musical, relatively modest releases. Then Fantastic Four: Next Steps opens on July 25. That Marvel reboot is tracking very well, two weeks out. July is peak moviegoing season and momentum is strong right now — business is excellent.
I Know What You Did Last Summer, episode #3 after a 27 year layoff
Our last two posts were:
THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS | Rotten Tomatoes update | July 9, 2025 here
JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH opening | The Jurassic series | Where we are now | July 4 to 6, 2025 4th of July weekend here
To receive all of our work, be sure to upgrade: