While Richard Donner’s “Superman” may have effectively birthed the modern superhero movie genre, when it comes to actual box-office receipts, the Last Son of Krypton has never really been in the same league as some of his contemporaries.
To date, “Man of Steel” has been the biggest-grossing solo Superman film at $670 million worldwide, with the next nearest being “Superman Returns” with $391 million and the original “Superman” with $300 million. That’s a far cry from billion-dollar grossers like Batman and Spider-Man.
With this weekend’s gross added, James Gunn’s “Superman” has now reached $331 million in the U.S. to overtake Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” as the highest-grossing Superman film ever made domestically.
In all, Superman has made more than $578 million worldwide so far – the highest-grossing superhero movie in 2025, and it still has a few more weeks to play out. The film looks unlikely to gross the further $100 million it needs to beat the worldwide gross of “Man of Steel” ($670 million) but passing $600 million seems highly likely.
That said, online backlash to the film’s financial success is out there. One user asked James Gunn about other people saying the film has to make $650 million to break even, and whether that’s true. Gunn responded (via Threads):
“Absolutely false. Anyone saying that doesn’t have an understanding of the film business – and we would be idiots to make a first-in-a-franchise film that would need to make that much to be profitable.”
Some of the negativity to the film’s box-office ties back to an application submitted to the state of Ohio for a tax credit on the film, an application which reportedly projected a $363 million cost for the film, quite different from the final $225 million figure which Warner Bros. Pictures has officially cited as the film’s production budget.
Gunn already dismissed that Ohio figure as being wrong, and previous trade reports suggested the film had to reach $500 million to be breakeven and $700 million to be a true success. The studio is not doubt happy with the domestic result but, much like with “Sinners,” the international sadly could’ve done better.
“Superman” is rumored to be hitting PVOD now on August 26th, approximately 45 days after the film’s theatrical opening.
