James Gunn's 'Superman' soars, earning over $200 million worldwide during its opening weekend
"Superman" earned $122 million at the domestic box office and $95 million internationally. So far, the DC reboot has amassed $217 million worldwide.
Written and directed by James Gunn, "Superman" brings Clark Kent and his superhero alter ego back to the silver screen. David Corenswet plays the titular character this time around. Corenswet previously appeared in the 2022 horror film "Pearl" and the 2024 action thriller "Twisters."
"I think he's the biggest movie star in the world," Gunn told The New York Times. "I just don't think people know it yet."
The film also stars Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.
Based on the 1938 comic book character, Superman has become a pop culture phenomenon that has inspired numerous TV shows and a film franchise.
Zack Snyder spearheaded the previous iteration, which starred Henry Cavill in the 2013 film " Man of Steel," which earned $125 million during its opening weekend. Snyder also directed DC's "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League." However, Snyder stepped down from "Justice League" in 2017, and Joss Whedon took over during post-production.
In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery appointed Gunn and Peter Safran co-CEOs and co-chairs of DC Studios.
"Their decades of experience in filmmaking, close ties to the creative community, and proven track record thrilling superhero fans around the globe make them uniquely qualified to develop a long-term strategy across film, TV, and animation, and take this iconic franchise to the next level of creative storytelling," Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.
In addition to the "Superman" reboot, fans can expect to get a DC "Supergirl" film starring "House of the Dragon" star Milly Alcock in 2026.
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Gizmodo
7 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Superhero Movies Have Stopped Obsessing Over Origins
There's a repeating theme across 2025's major superhero movies—Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Superman, and Fantastic Four: First Steps. All four have interesting, sometimes conflicting relationships with time and how far along their characters are into their superhero tenures, making these movies simultaneous continuations and introductions. Time has always been a key part of superhero movies, and it used to be that their starting points could be whenever a creative team chose. In 1978, Superman could be an origin story, while 1989's Batman could take place at a nebulous (but still early) time in his career, and that was that. Both the latter and 1998's Blade happen after the characters have realized their identities, but they also touch on their respective origins—an efficient way to help newcomers dive in. This approach persisted in the early 2000s with Daredevil, X-Men (to a point), and Constantine, while other heroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk came to the silver screen to have their beginnings told. After Batman Begins became a hit in 2005, 'origin' was the word of the day, and it wasn't long before we were seeing how James Bond, the crew of the Enterprise, and plenty more came to become as we know them. It actually took superheroes a little longer to get on board, but time had to matter once cinematic universes began taking off: Green Lantern, Iron Man, Captain America, the list of origins is well-documented. During the 2010s, some of the most interesting experimentation with this formula came from team movies; Black Panther technically never gets an origin in either Captain America: Civil War or his 2018 solo movie, and Ant-Man is both an origin and pseudo-legacy sequel (in spirit more than anything). Meanwhile, the 2016 Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy had characters who came in pre-formed but gave us plots about the beginnings of one or more characters; Harley Quinn & the Birds of Prey can't really exist without the building blocks established by Squad, and the first and third Guardians are directly about how Peter Quill and Rocket became as we first see them. For the first-timers making their big-screen debuts, these origin stories were a necessary onboarding process and typically worked well enough to get audiences invested. Repeat heroes weren't so lucky—since it hadn't really been that long since we last saw them, their retold origins were looked at with disdain, usually because their changes went against tradition and could be overcomplicated or just bad. Between the Amazing Spider-Man duology and the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, Marvel was certainly the worst offender of the 2010s, and it's no wonder that it elected to just hit the ground running with Tom Holland's MCU-approved Peter Parker. The lack of an onscreen origin was appreciated but ended up working against this specific iteration now that he could hang with the Avengers. With nary a mention of Uncle Ben, fans felt like something was missing with this particular Peter, in turn leading to his Home trilogy stealthily becoming an origin story so he could be a more 'faithful' Spider-Man beginning with 2026's Brand New Day. The origin approach has changed in the 2020s, in part because TV shows have become more integrated into these cinematic universes and can now handle that part of a character's life. Marvel's used several of its shows to give characters their origins or put them in specific places so they can come to the big screen like they're having just another day on the job, as we've seen in Brave New World, The Marvels, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Fantastic Four, which takes place in an alternate universe, also goes for this approach, opening with the heroes having already gone through the struggles of their superpowers offscreen and now operating as a superhero team and worldwide celebrities for about five years. The movie uses old footage and a TV show host to get audiences up to speed, a more tactile and period-appropriate way compared to just having characters explain themselves to others in the first act of the film, as is the case in Marvels or Thunderbolts. Conversely, DC's going back to the old ways and just having movies take place early enough in their heroes' timelines. As The Batman and Superman open, the respective heroes have been around for two or three years and have some experience, but still have some things to learn so they can become the version fans expect them to be. There's no real origin playing out in any of these movies; supporting characters like Catwoman and the Penguin in Batman and Superman's Justice Gang have also been doing their own thing for some time. Again, some of these characters have already been on screen before in general audiences' lifetimes, so the heavy lifting's been partially done, but this is also done to show them that an actual world's going on outside the frame and they're getting a chance to see what things are like in Gotham or Metropolis for a few days. What do origin stories look like going forward for DC and Marvel? It's been years since either did ones for characters who weren't first introduced beforehand—Shang-Chi in 2021 and Blue Beetle in 2023—and it could take quite a while for a pre-established character to get a spotlight for their backstory to play out. (Don't forget, it took Black Widow 11 years worth of guest appearances and her onscreen death for us to learn her full deal.) Fully ignoring the origin isn't entirely an option, as Superman and Fantastic Four critiques have shown just jumping in fully can also put off some audiences, whether they're a diehard fan or it's their first time seeing these characters. That the two films try to shake things up is appreciated nonetheless, and it'll be interesting to see how later projects figure out how to make the beginning feel new again… so long as we don't have to watch Uncle Ben or the Waynes get shot again. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.


Forbes
7 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Fantastic Four' Underwhelms, ‘Superman' Soars Higher At Box Office
Marvel Studios' summer tentpole The Fantastic Four: First Steps underwhelmed this weekend with just $118 million domestic and $100 million internationally, slightly ahead of what were frankly conservative estimates but realistically behind potential for such a major MCU release. Meanwhile, DC Studios' Superman soars higher at the box office past $500 million, after previously opening higher than Fantastic Four. Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Fantastic Four Misses A Step In a surprise turnabout, it was Superman eating into The Fantastic Four: First Steps' weekend gross, rather than Marvel's summer tentpole acting as a speed bump for DC's cinematic reboot. Superman went from a trajectory toward $550 million to suddenly staring confidently at $600 million or more, if last weekend's upset moral victory is a sign of things to come. It's not a disaster, by any stretch (sorry, pun kind of intended), but a $218 million global bow for Marvel's biggest film of the year is not the champaign-popping result they wanted. Especially not after the previous two MCU releases this year underperformed. Fantastic Four debuting to less than Superman is a bad sign for the MCU in more ways than merely this film's own box office prospects. Marvel 'First Family' is meant to set up the two-part Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars payoff, as well as setting the foundations for a soft reboot of the MCU (with X-Men serving as the other major players in laying the new groundwork). The Fantastic Four: First Steps did come in more than 10% ahead of Superman internationally, and the MCU tends to enjoy good overseas holds. However, overall lower opening weekend global sales combined with the fact Superman is holding far better than expected (particularly with families and younger viewers compared to Fantastic Four's alarming drops among those demographics), means we have to wait to see whether First Steps can match the Man of Steel's stamina. Right now, it appears Superman could wind up flying as high as $630 million, or as low as $590 million, but most likely somewhere north of $600 million at this point. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, on the other hand, might now have the more modest trajectory once anticipated for Superman. There's still a broad range of outcomes, however, because the A- Cinemascore and great 87% 'Certified Fresh" rating from critics via Rotten Tomatoes mean strong positive word-of-mouth just like Superman enjoyed, except Fantastic Four's numbers are actually a bit higher. Which usually spells good news for second and third weekend holds, particularly internationally – again, where the MCU gets most of its money. If Fantastic Four can build upon its lead with foreign audiences and make up lost ground there, it could allow the Marvel film to exceed Superman's international holds (which are still good, make no mistake, but still significantly weaker than domestic) and wind up making more worldwide despite a potentially (probably, to be frank) lower domestic haul than DC Studio's successful superhero revival. Fantastic Four And Family Films My guess is that what we're seeing is part of a much broader trend that's taking place, and it's displacing a lot of previously chart-topping genres and franchises. And it isn't a major surprise, if you follow annual box office charts much. So far this year, the top of the worldwide box office charts is dominated by family movies targeted heavily toward children and parents. China's Ne Zha II purportedly at the very top with $1.9 billion, followed by Lilo & Stitch with a huge $1 billion, A Minecraft Movie at $955 million, Jurassic World: Rebirth with $718 million to date, How to Train Your Dragon at $606 million so far, and then some adult-appealing Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning closing out at about $595 million and F1 currently at $510 million and still going strong. Only then, at the bottom of the top 10, do we finally see Superman's $503 million gross (so far), Captain America: Brave New World at $415 million, and Thunderbolts with just $382 million. Now, these placements will change eventually, as other upcoming films inevitably bump some of these films from the top 10 box office charts. More important for the moment is that Jurassic World will remain in third place for a while, after it hits roughly $850 million. How to Train Your Dragon and Superman will face off over who has the highest $600+ grand total, with a near-tie possible. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will wind up somewhere in high-$500 millions or the $600 millions. F1 will race its way toward $575 million to perhaps even $600 million Likewise, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash are both going to wind up high on the top-10 list by the end of the year, with Avatar 3 at the very top and Zootopia 2 almost surely among the top-5. So the final year-end chart will probably look something like this: Notice the top seven spots are dominated by child-leaning family movies, and the two that aren't (Avatar 3 and Jurassic World) are still popular with kids and teens as well as parents. F1 at the bottom is the only true adult drama entry on the list, the other nine being multi-demographic films with large or predominant family attendance, as well as big youth turnout overall. Superheroes are now mostly relegated to second-tier box office status and the bottom of the top-10. And even those impressive numbers for Jurassic World tell another story. Jurassic World: Rebirth is still in the weekend top-three and stomping its way toward maybe $850 million despite lousy audience grades and weak reviews. That's a big number, but it's also a huge comedown from the billion-plus box office of the preceding three chapters in the franchise. Meanwhile, the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon looks to finish around $625, which is higher than I personally expected (I figured between $500-600 million), and should become the highest grossing entry in the entire franchise, topping its animated predecessors. And of course, both Lilo & Stitch and Minecraft overperformed and are in the elite tier of the year-end box office. Ne Zha II is a whole special story, having made the bulk of its enormous gross in China, and I always have questions about how (*ahem*) accurate the accounting is. That said, it's still clearly a big hit and will get a North American release later this year, so we'll see how that goes. But regardless, it's another example of rekindled surging power of family entertainment at the top of box office charts. While family movies have always been popular and typically pepper the annual box office top-10, superhero cinema and certain other recurring tentpole franchises usually take several of the top-5 and tend to reside in the higher positions of the charts. But aside from rare billion dollar grossers like last year's Deadpool & Wolverine, superhero movies are settling into a lower tier at the box office, in the 'new normal' that sees viewers pickier about what they spend their dollars on, favoring family entertainment and looking for unique adaptations of familiar franchises. With so many superhero films and streaming series, not to mention plenty of animated superhero films and shows as well, parents and families are far less obliged to hit the multiplex for most of these pictures. Instead, they choose to watch them at home later, and reserve their theater seats for those predominantly kid-friendly family films. Unless a superhero film offers something really extra that makes it must-see, or unless it nails the appeal to families with young kids, those crucial family and youth demographics aren't as interested in keeping up in theaters. Binging on the shared-world ahead of major crossovers is easier and more appealing, it seems, and helps more easily work in viewings of the streaming shows. Fantastic Four And Marvel's Future That Marvel can't sustain the mind-boggling levels of success they enjoyed through their Infinity Saga isn't surprising, nor is it a sign of failure on their part. What Marvel is, and what it represents, has evolved and changed now. Marvel is at the 'what now?' point. Conversely, DC Studios has captured audiences' attention by stepping into that place the MCU once occupied with a fresh, fun new world being introduced, and it invites all ages to the party while everybody experiences it for the first time together. Marvel is now setting up their own soft reboot of sorts, but will audiences buy into it? They did with the DCEU's final dying gasps giving way to the newly introduced DCU in Superman, so maybe despite some underperformance for the MCU ahead of their own reset, they could enjoy some boost from the Avengers sequels coming up (although danger of underperforming always exists) and then introduce a whole new MCU that rekindles the sense of newness and joy. But even if both the DCU and MCU experience a new love affair with audiences, I suspect it will still never reach the heights of the Infinity Saga's recurring billion dollar franchise sequels and $2+ billion Avengers 'event' releases. Successful sustainable superhero cinematic universes will probably financially look more like Marvel's Phase One and Phase Two, or DCEU's first set of movies (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League), where only the Avengers or major sequels/team-ups score $1 billion and the rest fall in the $500-700 million range. That means budgets will have to get under control, and there will be less releases each year, while streaming spinoffs become more attractive less 'tested' characters. If James Gunn and Peter Safran can guide DC Studios toward tweaking their approach in Superman but otherwise delivering on the potential to give audiences what they experienced with the original MCU build-up and payoff, then they'll be rewarded with solid success that might not quite achieve the Infinity Saga's heights, but will still be enormously successful and popular. And I'm going to say something controversial to some, but here it goes: the more Gunn and Safran make sure the rest of the DCU movies maintain the same appeal to families and kids, the more successful it will be. Dogs? Humor? All-ages fun? Yes, all around. I know everybody wants some idealized world where each franchise director is given exclusive visionary control and every film can be its own thing, but I'm talking about a different level of success that builds a whole DC world around an inclusive 'all fans welcome' approach and pointedly wants to create young fans who will remain fans for decades to come. I agree that a grounded Batman can coexist with a fantastical Superman, but that's easier in the comics than in live action cinema, and crucially there is a difference between what comic book fans' cultural expectations are compared to the much larger mainstream global film audience who are fans of these superheroes. Folks showing up to the Marvel movies responded the way they did because it all was within a shared world and it felt like it. Audiences bring those expectations and subconscious assumptions or judgments with them into the cinema, and it matters for their sense of buy-in. This has become more obvious as we've seen the differences between Marvel's and DC's successes and failures over the years. Superman had an aesthetic and sensibility, as well as tonal balance and sense of humor, that works for superhero movies meant for all audience members. It feels very similar to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man II, and most of all the director's Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness. We all remember how successful those films were, and I think leaning into that for the overall DC world works extremely well if the family audience appeal is front and center. It's actually not dissimilar to the aesthetics of Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie, which I long said would be an excellent aesthetic template (minus the graphic violence, sex, and profanity) for adapting the DC universe to film in a shared world. Perhaps leaning into Superman's family-friendly aspects most of the time, and allowing for leaning more toward Watchmen for the slightly 'edgier' or darker films like Brave and the Bold (might it eventually be retitled Batman and Robin?), but even that film could use the grittier tone while tilting back the other way by having Robin/Damian as the main character instead of Batman/Bruce. For Marvel, and for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the evolved aesthetic approach is an interesting introduction to what the potential future of the MCU might look like, with a world growing out of Fantastic Four's history merged with the existence of Mutants and X-Men. It makes sense that when previous superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and others are rebooted with new actors, it will happen in a new world with new aesthetic changes to avoid repetition and to allow entirely new approaches and inspirations. At least, I hope that happens, but it depends a lot on the success of Fantastic Four, and on the success of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Let's find out how Fantastic Four: First Steps does through the weekdays as word-of-mouth spreads, and then how strongly it holds – I'm especially interested in what those international figures tell us over the next seven days, because that's where we'll get the best glimpse of Fantastic Four's box office future, and what it might mean for the rest of the MCU's plans. Superman's own numbers will separately tell us whether it's headed for the lower end or higher end of those $600+ expectations.


CNET
7 hours ago
- CNET
Today's NYT Connections Hints, Answers for July 29, #779
Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today's Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles. Card players, today's NYT Connections puzzle is for you. Need more help? Read on for clues and today's Connections answers. The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak. Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time Hints for today's Connections groups Here are four hints for the groupings in today's Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group. Yellow group hint: Maybe it's on clearance. Green group hint: Quit hassling me! Blue group hint: Ante up! Purple group hint: Many soap dispensers. Answers for today's Connections groups Yellow group: Discount. Green group: Irritate. Blue group: Poker actions. Purple group: Things you can pump. Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words What are today's Connections answers? The completed NYT Connections puzzle for July 29, 2025, #779. NYT/Screenshot by CNET The yellow words in today's Connections The theme is discount. The four answers are deal, promotion, sale and special. The green words in today's Connections The theme is irritate. The four answers are bug, nettle, ruffle and steam. The blue words in today's Connections The theme is poker actions. The four answers are call, check, fold and raise. The purple words in today's Connections The theme is things you can pump. The four answers are brakes, fist, gas and iron.