Supergirl flops at box office, testing DC Studios reboot

Supergirl opened in North American theaters to about $38 million domestically and roughly $68 million worldwide, finishing second behind Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5. The opening landed far below earlier expectations and added an early stumble to Warner Bros. Pictures’ attempt to reset DC’s film slate.

Peter Safran said the film did not meet DC Studios’ box-office expectations, but he framed it as only one part of a broader, long-term strategy for the revived superhero brand. That stance now faces a sharper test, because Supergirl was meant to show that DC could turn one of its biggest comic-book properties into a steadier theatrical draw after years of uneven results.

The movie arrived with Craig Gillespie directing, Milly Alcock playing Kara Zor-El, and Ana Nogueira credited for the screenplay, which drew on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic series. But the finished cut carried signs of a production that had been worked over repeatedly. The film reportedly screened more than ten times before release, went through three different endings, and lost about 25 minutes from the runtime in the final months, leaving it at 1 hour and 47 minutes including credits.

The post-production churn extended to the score as well. The film reportedly cycled through three composers before Claudia Sarne completed the music, after Ramin Djawadi and Tom Holkenborg had previously been attached. Those changes matter because they suggest a studio trying to tune the film into a safer commercial shape, even as the adjustments may have narrowed the window for a clean, confident launch.

The box-office disappointment also looks worse against the path Supergirl took into theaters. Earlier tracking had pointed to a domestic opening near $55 million before estimates slipped into the high-$40-million range, making the final number look soft even against a lowered bar. With Toy Story 5 holding No. 1 and Supergirl opening well below internal hopes, DC Studios now faces a familiar problem in modern franchise filmmaking: expensive movies can be retooled, reshot and re-scored, but audiences still decide on opening weekend whether the brand has earned back their trust.