‘Supergirl’ Saturday Numbers Fall Short of ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Performance

The Saturday box office figures for ‘Supergirl’ are in, and according to @GlobalBoxOffice, they range between $10 million and $11 million domestically, a disappointing result compared to ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’ which earned $11.3 million on its first Saturday alone.

Given the extensive promotional campaign from DC Studios, this comparison is a sobering indicator of the film’s performance.

The full opening weekend is now projected to be around $40 million domestically, with a global total estimated at approximately $75 million from 78 international markets across 40,000 screens. Additionally, ‘Supergirl’ has received a B- CinemaScore, which is lower than nearly all recent DC films, except for ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’ which received a D. This CinemaScore suggests that the audience turnout was not particularly enthusiastic, raising concerns about word-of-mouth in the weeks to come.

A PostTrak definite recommend score of just 52% adds to the concern, falling well below the typical threshold needed for studio tentpoles of this scale to maintain momentum over several weekends. The Rotten Tomatoes critics score for ‘Supergirl’ stands at 57%, marking the lowest for any DCU release to date by a significant margin. While the audience score of 76% is healthier, it is insufficient to offset a CinemaScore that ranks among the worst in DC movie history.

The demographic breakdown reveals further issues. Men over 25 accounted for 41% of ticket purchases, while the targeted Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, which the film’s marketing aimed to attract through partnerships with Ulta Beauty and digital activations, represented only 18% for men under 25 and 15% for women under 25. Analysts have noted that a superhero film typically needs at least three key demographic groups to achieve genuine success, and the under-25 audience simply did not show up.

This weekend places ‘Supergirl’ alongside other commercial disappointments from DC. For context, ‘Superman,’ the franchise’s cornerstone film released just last summer, debuted with $125 million and closed at $618 million globally. The stark contrast between these two figures illustrates how ‘Supergirl’ struggled to translate the goodwill towards the DCU brand into actual ticket sales.

Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El is confirmed to return in next summer’s ‘Man of Tomorrow,’ indicating that her future in the franchise remains secure despite this outcome. However, the opening weekend results underscore the challenges Warner Bros. and DC Studios face in managing audience expectations for future releases.

Analysts have pointed out that the release date may have played a role in this performance, as ‘Supergirl’ was released between ‘Toy Story 5’ and a wave of major July releases, including ‘Minions and Monsters’ and ‘The Odyssey.’ This timing left little room for the film to gain the momentum needed for a successful opening. The lesson from this weekend is clear: not every chapter in the DCU carries the same weight as the one that launched it.

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