James Gunn Dismisses The Notion ‘Superman’ Needs To Make $700 Million To Be A Success As “Complete And Utter Nonsense”
Superman is out on Friday, and projections still seem to adjust under the wire. Early projections were in the area of $130 million before they lowered to a more modest $90M. The budget is above $200M and may be upwards of $400M after marketing is factored in, say THR. There are fears the film might need to hit close to a billion dollars to break even or be pronounced a success.
James Gunn is hearing this much like we are, probably, but he dismisses the dour diagnosis as more clickbait. “This is not the riskiest endeavor in the world,” he said to GQ. “Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it’s not as big as people make it out to be. They hear these numbers that the movie’s only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something, and it’s just complete and utter nonsense. It doesn’t need to be as big of a situation as people are saying.”
That may be so, but Superman is being depended on for the future of the DCU. It has to do some level of satisfactory business, or David Zaslav and all of Warner Bros. Discovery will look like fools for putting all their chips on Gunn. He has a slate of movies and shows, including Supergirl and Clayface, due out in the coming year. If the Man of Steel can’t fly at theaters, it’ll be mightily awkward to see the DC brand have to pivot sharply again.
Box office predictions were not helped by mixed test screening reactions – some of which say the film is a mess – and early reviews going as far as calling it the final nail in the coffin of superhero movies. Those reviews leaked ahead of the embargo lifting and were either revised or scrubbed temporarily. The consensus among critics has leveled off now, although the Rotten Tomatoes score went from 91% to a still-fresh 83%.
Superman is soaring higher with audiences than critics, as it gets an aggregate RT score of 96% with the former. That’s only one point lower than F1 starring Brad Pitt, which became an unforeseen dark horse that shows the need for speed still exists inside moviegoers. THR has Superman pulling ahead of the Pitt crew and those freaky dinos in Jurassic World: Rebirth with a forecasted $130M opening weekend, while Warner sees $100M as more realistic.
