On Thursday, the first movie of the DC film New Genesis directed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, titled “Superman: New Genesis,” earned $22.5 million in preview box office revenue.
Comscore data shows that this is the third best Thursday box office performance for a superhero movie under the DC umbrella. It comes after “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012, which earned $30.6 million, and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” in 2016, which made $27.7 million. This preview also marks the best ever for a Superman movie. By comparison, in 2013, “Superman: Man of Steel” only garnered $9 million in Thursday night preview sales.
Comscore’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian stated: “With great power comes great responsibility isn’t just a Spider-Man slogan. Safran and Gunn also bear that responsibility, aiming to achieve superheroic box office numbers for their new version of Superman amidst this highly anticipated summer movie weekend.”
The new version of “Superman” is expected to earn between $130 to $140 million during its opening weekend. Over a decade ago, the opening weekend box office for “Man of Steel” was $116 million. This performance is comparable to “The Batman” directed by Matt Reeves in 2022, which raked in $134 million.
Prior to this, only three DC movies had strong performances in the first three days: “Batman v. Superman” with $166 million, “The Dark Knight Rises” with $160 million, and “The Dark Knight” with $158.4 million.
Since the end of 2022, Gunn and Safran have taken over as co-heads of Warner Bros.’ DC Comics films and television division and have developed a ten-year plan to revitalize DC’s film and television properties, including fresh interpretations of Superman and Batman.
Both of them have extensive experience in the superhero genre, having transitioned various Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Universe characters such as “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Suicide Squad,” and “Peacemaker” from comics to both small and big screens.
Although several television projects have already debuted on Warner Bros.’ streaming service HBO Max, “Superman” marks Gunn and Safran’s first theatrical project.
(Reference: CNBC)