The highlight of the North American box office last weekend was undoubtedly the huge success of "Superman," the DC superhero movie produced by Warner and created by James Gunn.
The new version of "Superman," starring David Corence, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult, earned $122 million in its opening weekend at 4,135 theaters, firmly topping the box office charts and becoming the third highest-grossing film in North America in 2025, behind Warner's "Minecraft: The Movie" ($162.8 million) and Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" ($146 million). So far, only these three films have earned more than $100 million in their opening weekends in the North American film market this year.
"Superman" became the third highest-grossing film in North America in its opening weekend in 2025.
At the same time, "Superman" also became the first superhero movie to break the $100 million opening box office since "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" in the 2024 summer season (opening box office of US$211 million). It is also the first time in eight years since "Wonder Woman" in 2017 (opening box office of US$103 million) that a DC movie has broken the $100 million opening box office.
In addition, the film surpassed Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" in 2013 (with an opening box office of 116.7 million US dollars), becoming the highest-grossing Superman single-lead movie in North America in history; however, it failed to surpass the opening box office of 166 million US dollars of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" in 2016.
In director James Gunn's personal record, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" still maintains the highest opening box office of $146.5 million; 2013's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" was $118.2 million, which was originally his second best result, but now it has been squeezed to third place.
Stills from Superman
According to a box office survey last Friday, 68% of Superman ticket buyers were male, and nearly two-thirds of the audience were between the ages of 18 and 34. Due to the excellent reputation of the film, it not only received an A- rating from moviegoers, the same as Man of Steel, but also received an 82% rating from critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website. It is expected that the box office potential should not be underestimated, and it should not be a problem for Warner to recover the production cost of up to $225 million.
Stills from Superman
Of course, if we talk about flaws, the film only earned $95 million in box office revenue in 78 overseas markets this weekend, accounting for less than half of its $217 million global first weekend total box office. In mainland China, the world's second largest box office market, although Gunn attended the premiere in person, the opening box office was not ideal, only 47.81 million yuan; and among the three days, only on Friday's premiere day, it ranked among the top three box office of the day, ranking behind "Jurassic World: Resurgence" and "Malice", and the other two days could only rank fifth and sixth on the daily box office list; coupled with the arrival of a large number of new films this weekend, it is expected that it will be difficult for it to have a brilliant performance in the mainland China market.
In this regard, some Hollywood box office analysts said that this may be related to the poor overall image of the United States overseas. In contrast, Universal Pictures' "Jurassic World: Resurgence" earned $68 million in overseas box office and $40 million in North American box office in its second weekend of release. The current global total box office has reached $529 million. The relatively higher proportion of overseas box office shows that the big dinosaurs without any political color are probably more popular with foreign audiences than Superman.
Stills from Superman
Before the release of "Superman", Warner and its DC Films were under tremendous pressure. After all, this was the first work of the rebooted DC Universe, shouldering the heavy responsibility of opening up new territory. In previous DC Universe movies, several high-cost works including "The Flash", "Aquaman 2", "Shazam 2" and "Blue Beetle" all had unsatisfactory box office results. James Gunn took over the leadership of DC in 2022, and he was able to produce such results three years later, which was not disappointing.
After all, the pressure Gunn faces is not only the poor box office history of the above-mentioned DC movies, but also the fact that comic-based superhero movies in recent years have clearly shown a downward trend. Marvel movies such as "Captain Marvel 2" released in 2024, "Captain America 4" and "Thunderbolts*" in 2025, as well as Marvel derivative works such as "Spider-Man" and "Kraven the Hunter" by Sony Pictures, all performed poorly at the box office.
James Gunn (first from right) on the set
David Zaslav, the boss of Warner Bros. Discovery Group, is obviously very satisfied with the performance of "Superman". He specially issued a statement over the weekend, expressing his expectation for Gunn's next series of works to reshape DC: "This weekend, we witnessed the take-off of "Superman" on the big screen, and James Gunn's enthusiasm and vision were faithfully projected on the big screen. And "Superman" is just the first step. In the coming year, DC Films will successively launch the movies "Supergirl" and "Clayface", as well as the series "Green Lantern Corps" broadcast on HBO Max. These are all part of a bold ten-year plan. DC's vision is clear and its momentum is strong. I am very excited about the exciting content in the future."
This weekend, apart from "Superman", the top ten films in the North American box office are all old faces. Apple's "F1: The Drive" earned $13 million in the third weekend, and the overseas box office reached $38.5 million, bringing its global total box office to $393 million.
