Supergirl is a box office disaster. How can Marvel and DC save the superhero movie? | film

IIt’s sometimes hard to believe that modern Superman movies have been around for nearly four decades before the Man of Steel met Batman on the big screen. Since 2008, when Iron Man first came to life, we’ve become accustomed to superhero cinema as one giant, interconnected machine: capes, gods, aliens, and magic rocks all spinning around the same cosmic pinball table. There have been dozens of these comic book movies, often centered around characters previously unknown to casual moviegoers: Rocket Raccoon, Ant-Man, Blue Beetle.

Until recently, audiences greeted each new arrival like an all-you-can-eat superhero buffet. It seemed as if there would always be another dusty helmet, glowing cube or giant talking tree waiting in the great comic book’s attic to be transformed into a billion-dollar show. No one expected the well to dry up so quickly. Which brings us somewhat awkwardly to Supergirl’s disastrous box office.

The new DC Studios film, starring Millie Alcock as Kara Zor-El, opened with just $38 million in North America and about $68 million worldwide last weekend, grim numbers for a movie that reportedly cost about $170 million, before spending on marketing. This has been seen as a crisis for James Gunn’s new DCU, as only two films have been produced. But a more interesting question may be whether Supergirl has uncovered a problem that now extends beyond just one comic book studio.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe trained audiences to believe that secondary characters were important, because they served as a launching pad for something massive: a team-up as big as the Avengers movies, or at least the next link in an exciting series of plots. But when a movie like Supergirl fails to gain traction, the difficulty becomes apparent — and we can say the same about Marvel’s Eternals, Sony’s live-action Spider-Verse films like Madame Web, or even DC’s The Flash.

The superhero cinematic universes are designed to expand, with each addition contributing to the overall feel of the expansive imaginative Lego collection. When one piece doesn’t fit, it’s hard to encourage fans to care about the next one. Will Supergirl now appear in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow movie to prove to the wider world that she is… He does Care more than crypto and sugar? This could be one way forward, if Gunn’s Superman sequel last year is a smash hit.

It also makes it more likely that DC, which has already destroyed one comic book universe, will focus on popular superheroes. Andy Muschietti, the director of the It films, is set to helm Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which will exist within the main continuity (Robert Pattinson’s version lives in his own version of Gotham, and will never meet Superman or Wonder Woman). There will also be increased pressure on projects like the upcoming hybrid horror film Clayface, even if the latter isn’t saddled with a big budget or any real requirements to feed into broader issues. Could DC’s future now be just Superman and Batman movies, with the occasional cheaper “Elseworlds” spinoff, while everyone sits around waiting for someone else to rebuild trust?

If so, this isn’t the start Gunn and studio co-president Peter Safran would have wanted. Will we ever see films like James Mangold’s Swamp Thing, or the proposed films inspired by Teen Titans, Bane and Deathstroke? Safran said nothing has changed after Supergirl, but studio Warner Bros. may see things differently if Supergirl is truly on track to lose $100 million.

Oddly enough, the biggest headache may be Marvel’s. Sony has already ruined any chance for characters like Kraven the Hunter, Morbius, or Madame Web to enter Spider-Man’s MCU universe. But if audiences simply turn away when superheroes, other than the obvious big names, get their own titles, how will that affect blockbuster blockbusters that have grossed billions of dollars at the box office? Would anyone care if Shang-Chi stepped up to strangle Doctor Doom in Secret Wars if the ring-wielding hero’s last solo movie had been released six years earlier? There are already significantly fewer comic book movies in theaters than there were just a few years ago, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger has indicated that the ongoing wave of spin-off films for Disney+ will also be curbed. Furthermore, the decline in quality of superhero movies in general will eventually hurt the entire aging machine.

No doubt, the naysayers will be happy. But it would be a sad irony if the very thing that made such films inspiring in the first place — the ability to see Spider-Man exchanging curses with Iron Man and Thor in the midst of some expansive, multiversal punch-ups — became what completely seals the era of superhero cinema.