Supergirl opened with $38 million domestically over the weekend, a weaker start than the roughly $50 million that pre-release projections had pointed to, but Peter Safran said DC Studios is staying with the strategy he and James Gunn laid out in early 2023. The film also took in $68 million worldwide, giving Warner Bros. an early test of how much room the new DC Universe has to grow.
That matters now because Supergirl is only the second big-screen project in the rebooted slate, and it arrives after Superman drew $618 million globally a year earlier. Milly Alcock leads the film as Kara Zor-El, who runs into Jason Momoa's Lobo and other comics staples, but the opening weekend shows that name recognition inside the fan base does not automatically translate into the kind of broad turnout DC Studios was aiming for.
The gap between expectation and result is also easier to see when the budgets are lined up. Supergirl carries a $170 million budget, which is still a large spend, but it is lower than Superman's $225 million price tag and leaves less room for error if ticket sales cool after opening weekend. In practical terms, a smaller budget helps, but it does not erase the need for a stronger domestic launch when a film is being used as a marker for the whole plan.
Safran's response was notable less for any panic than for its refusal to bend the larger schedule around one miss. He said the film did not meet box office expectations, but described it as only one piece of a broader long-term strategy that he and Gunn set in motion. That leaves DC Studios counting on the rest of the slate to carry the argument forward, with Creature Commandos already renewed for a second season, Lanterns set to debut in August, Clayface in October and Man of Tomorrow scheduled for next July.
For Alcock, the opening is a rough first box office verdict on a film built to widen the DC Universe rather than just repeat Superman's playbook. The next test is not whether DC Studios changes course; it is whether audiences keep showing up often enough for the plan to look patient instead of fragile.
