against Toy Story and Minions

The second film of DC universe by James Gunn does not compete only against the enthusiasm that aroused the ‘Superman’ 2025. There are more traditional rivals to face: this summer’s release schedule places ‘Supergirl’ between two guaranteed-success animation giants, and the first box office analyzes already anticipate an opening below ‘The Flash’, the film that became symbol of the end of the previous stage of DC. And on the shoulders of this Supergirl falls nothing less than the continuity of the model that James Gunn is building.

Animation sandwich. ‘Toy Story 5’ has been in theaters for less than a week and has already surpassed 200 million in the US. The Pixar franchise is a real black hole, and attracts young children, teenagers and adults. And that’s not all: next week, on July 1, ‘Minions & Monsters’ arrives, the seventh installment of the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, with expectations of exceeding $100 million in five days thanks to July 4, a holiday in the US. ‘Supergirl’ has to stand up to these two colossi.

The Warner film also faces an unflattering tradition: in its second week, films with moderate openings or divided reviews they usually sink. This is what happened to ‘The Flash’ in 2023: it opened with 55 million and fell 72.5% in its second week, suffocating under the pressure of ‘Spider-Man: Crossing the Multiverse’ and ‘Elemental’. Today that film is remembered as a catastrophe and it is difficult for ‘Supergirl’ to face a comparable financial and reputational crisis, but the truth is that it is not easy at all.

The long shadow of The Flash. The point is that although we remember ‘The Flash’ as ​​a fiasco, it started from better positions. It had a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes when it was released, a better score than the 58% current ‘Supergirl’‘. It had Ezra Miller as a lure, then a big star, and the promise of bringing back Michael Keaton as Batman. And there are also two worrying precedents this summer, two failures at the box office that failed to go beyond their insufficient audience of loyalists to their corresponding franchises: ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe‘ and ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’.

DC: a lot to prove. The point is that DC still has to demonstrate something that Marvel achieved a long time ago: that the publisher’s brand is enough to sell the films, beyond its characters. The DC films that do not have a Batman or a Superman in the title start from an audience base that is perhaps too narrow for the budgets they manage. Even so, ‘Supergirl’ is a relatively modest production: it cost around $175 million and does not have box office percentage sharing agreements with the actors, so the box office profits are greater. It is believed that the film has to raise around 300 million to recover its budget. From the 40-45 projected starting point, it has a long way to go.

What Gunn has done. The release of ‘Superman’ last year gave Gunn a solid start, with 125 million domestic opening and 618 million worldwide. Not a phenomenon, but something solid from which to build a universe that, according to Gunn himself, will not require fans to “do their homework” and watch all the movies. It is, of course, a relief given the drift of Marvel, but it has its problems: if the public does not know Supergirl or is not interested in the character, they may skip the movie while waiting for the next Superman movie.

Xataka’s opinion. We have had the opportunity to see ‘Supergirl’ and it does not seem worthy of the bile with which the critics are receiving it. It is true that it lacks the charisma that the films directed by Gunn such as ‘Superman’ overflow, and that it often seems like an imitation of the formula exploited by the director in his ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ for Marvel, but with much less ingenuity. And sometimes it falls into the detestable vices of superhero franchises, such as presenting flashy secondary characters (here, a completely decaffeinated Wolf) just because it can.

However, and despite a somewhat ramshackle final third (what superhero movies get rid of that, a couple in twenty years?), Milly Alcock is perfect in the title role and the effort to create a three-dimensional character is appreciated, but without false traumas. There is a certain modesty, a certain air of a “secondary comic” that is very satisfying, even though the result is light years away from the original Tom King comic that inspired the film. The result is more of a “yes” than anything else but… is that enough to save the box office?

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