With a strong opening of US$217 million at the global box office, Superman director James Gunn has expressed his immense gratitude for the fans’ response to the film.
Superman (2025) debuted with the biggest box office opening in the titular character’s solo film history, earning a domestic opening of US$122 million, surpassing Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (2013), which launched with US$116.7 million.
Its strong domestic opening marks the biggest superhero movie opening weekend since the release of the massively successful Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), which garnered a whopping US$211 million domestically. This means that Superman has beaten out four other films in the superhero genre that have been released since last summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine.
These comprise Venom: The Last Dance (2024), with a domestic opening of US$51 million, Kraven the Hunter (2024), with a paltry domestic opening of US$11 million, Captain America: Brave New World (2025), with a domestic opening of US$89 million, and Thunderbolts* (2025), with a domestic opening of US$76 million.
With the commercial success that Superman is currently enjoying, Gunn has released a statement on social media to express his gratitude for the film’s response.
“I’m incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm and kind words over the past few days. We’ve had a lot of ‘Super’ in Superman over the years, and I’m happy to have made a movie that focuses on the ‘man’ part of the equation – a kind of person always looking out for those in need,” he said. “That resonates so powerfully with so many people across the world is in itself a hopeful testament to the kindness and quality of human beings. Thank you.”
Superman’s impressive debut has also appeared to satisfy DC Studios’ parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, with CEO David Zaslav issuing a statement this weekend to celebrate the studio’s big win.
In a statement to Deadline, Zaslav remarked, “This weekend, we watched Superman soar as James Gunn’s passion and vision came to life on the big screen. Superman is just the first step. Over the next year alone, DC Studios will introduce the films Supergirl and Clayface in theatres and the series Lanterns on HBO Max, all part of a bold ten-year plan. The DC vision is clear, the momentum is real, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”
For the time being, it appears that Gunn’s Superman is on track to achieve what Gunn had sought to do, though only time will tell if the film continues to perform well as it enters its second weekend.
In the meantime, fans can and should check out Superman now in theatres to form their own opinions, in addition to checking out our Superman review and analysis of the ending and post-credits scenes.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
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