Supergirl has been battered around online for the past two days after critic reviews went live, and it settled at a 58% “rotten” Rotten Tomatoes score. That was well below not just its predecessor, Superman, but also other DCU projects from Peacemaker to Creature Commandos. And it didn’t exactly rank highly, even on the DCEU film list either.
Now, however, audiences are seeing the film for themselves, and so far, they’re being quite a bit kinder than critics. As it stands, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Supergirl is a 77%, a 19% jump over critics.
That’s lower than Superman, which had a 90% score. Audience scores can be weird, however, as the 39%-scored Black Adam in the DCEU had an 87% audience score. The Flash had an 81%. In the grand scheme of DC movies, with that score, Supergirl slides into the top 15, thereabouts.
The main test is not these scores, however, but the box office. The Flash may have had decent-to-good numbers here, but it lost $200 million. Supergirl, with its $175 million budget, should not lose nearly that much, if anything, but it may barely make it to $300 million, less than half of what Superman did (but at least above The Flash).
Word-of-mouth could change its fortunes. If fans band together and say, “Actually, this is pretty good,” that should help to some extent. I am curious how it will do against Jackass: Best and Last, also out this weekend, which may not sound like a threat, but it absolutely is. Toy Story 5 seems likely to eclipse everything, only in its second weekend after a $159 million domestic opener.
This may all turn out “okay,” but it’s certainly not the result WB wants to see, the second movie in its grand DCU plan with middling scores and only netting a couple hundred million in a year when Marvel is about to put out two billion-dollar features in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doosmday. It puts pressure on the upcoming Clayface to be good this fall, and not look like the somewhat bizarre DCU departure it seems to be. Then, James Gunn will return with Man of Tomorrow in 2027, which seems like more of a lock, given his endless talent for personally making superhero films. But making those movies and running a superhero universe are two different things, and Supergirl now has his judgment being called into question, based on who he has assigned to write and direct these things, and his approval of the final product. And, to bring up The Flash again, that’s a film he called “one of the greatest movies ever made.” Woof.
Numbers will start coming in for early Supergirl previews based on last night’s opening, and we’ll have Friday ones tomorrow. When the weekend settles, it seems like Supergirl will be lucky to land in second place.
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