re: 'Supergirl' Discussion Thread: News, Box Office, RT. Spoilers Allowed. WW $68 mil OW

quote:

---

So they took a swing on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s visceral and edgy graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which fans consider a True Grit-type story in the Krypton sub-verse. It has cost Gunn and Safran’s DC dearly; industry sources are estimating a $125 million loss after a $68M worldwide and $37M domestic opening and all first-cycle downstream ancillaries. Warner Bros sources have told us that breakeven for the Craig Gillespie-directed space opera resides in the $315M global range after a reported $170M-$186M net production cost and $120M global P&A (that doesn’t include the DC-record $100M promotional partner campaign).

---

quote:

---

In “Supergirl,” a melodramatic cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” scores a climactic battle sequence, with the song’s lyrics meant to offer encouragement to the plucky heroine: “Hey, don’t write yourself off yet…”

Yet the initial box office results for “Supergirl” would suggest that audiences are, in fact, writing off the film — and continuing to reject lesser-known comic book protagonists. The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation, which centers on Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, misfired with $37.1 million in North America and $62.6 million globally in its opening weekend. Monday’s final tally was below Sunday’s estimate of $38 million domestically and $68 million worldwide. After launching below expectations, the big-budget film is shaping up to be a money loser for the studio, as well as a major setback for the newly rebooted DC Universe.

Warner Bros. and DC spent $170 million to produce and roughly $120 million to market the comic book adventure, which takes place in outer space as Supergirl and an alien girl named Ruthye embark on a quest for vengeance and justice. Those lackluster initial ticket sales are concerning because “Supergirl” hasn’t been widely embraced by the general public, and there’s intense competition during the height of summer movie season, which could hobble the film’s box office staying power. Next weekend sees the release of another family-friendly film, Universal’s animated “Minions & Monsters,” while Disney’s live-action “Moana,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” round out the month of July.

“This was always going to be a tough hurdle for DC and Warner Bros. because Supergirl isn’t a character that has ever created an event-level blockbuster,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Audience perception of ‘Supergirl’ was not good. This is just a case of the film wasn’t good enough to become an event.”

Traditionally, a movie on the scale of “Supergirl” would need to earn at least $375 million to break even because theater owners get to keep about half of box office returns. However, a source close to “Supergirl” puts the film’s breakeven number at closer to $300 million.

---

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.

quote:

---

People need to understand, that's not photoshopped. Those are legit headlines by the same author, magazine, and very real headlines, just weeks apart.

---

quote:

---

Who Wants to Stream Shows About Straight White Men? Everyone, Apparently

---

quote:

---

We’re staring down the barrel of 2025, a year that was supposed to usher in record diversity onscreen (and, ideally, in real life), yet a recent UCLA report found that white men continue to dominate the most-watched streaming shows, such as Suits and Blue Bloods. This might seem anachronistic. After all, those guys had their say back in the earliest days of cinema, theoretically making this the era of BIPOC and otherwise marginalized creators like Shonda Rhimes, Tanya Saracho, Mindy Kaling, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Jaclyn Moore. But in the era of Trump 2.0, viewers are making a beeline for “second-screen content” that offers the least possible stimulation and capitulates almost entirely to the status quo.

Obviously, it doesn’t have to be that deep. (Some people just like Suits! Not me, but some people!) But it’s difficult not to link this trend to Hollywood’s decline in LGBTQ+ representation since the COVID pandemic and the WGA and SAG strikes of 2023. Diversity within the industry is, in fact, declining in general. While the percentage of Asian actors with speaking roles in films skyrocketed in 2023, Black and Latinx actors did not see the same increase, and it’s no secret that most Hollywood writers’ rooms remain very white, very male, very cis, and very straight.


When queer, racially and ethnically varied, and female-centric shows like Amazon’s A League of Their Own are unceremoniously canceled (a decision that creator Abbi Jacobson called “bullshite and cowardly”), allegedly because focus groups were uncomfortable with its strong LGBTQ+ focus, it’s difficult not to wonder whether various streaming platforms’ search for a signature, audience-pleasing-but-roundly-inoffensive breakout hit is getting in the way of telling stories with an actual viewpoint that might reach a new and less frequently represented segment of the American population. You can’t legislate taste or compel people to watch any particular show, but if we keep serving up Suits binge-watch sessions to viewers while cutting down on series with diverse leads, is it any wonder that people’s tastes will become more and more geared toward the palatable, the bland, and the depressingly familiar?

---

quote:

---

Who Wants to Stream Shows About Straight White Men? Everyone, Apparently

---