Supergirl starring Milly Alcock opened in second place at the North American box office on a confirmed $37.1m behind holdover Toy Story 5, yet DC Studios co-head Peter Safran preferred to focus on the bigger picture and said the company’s project remained on course.
Opening in 3,602 cinemas, the rebooted DC Studios’ second release through Warner Bros after 2025 hit Superman follows the deep space exploits of the Man of Steel’s jaded, hard-partying cousin Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl.
At a reported cost of $170m and $120m marketing spend and falling below pre-release forecasts of $50m, this was an inauspicious start for the feature directed by Craig Gillespie, although it did place second in the global box office charts on an estimated $68m.
According to reports, the film could lose anywhere between $80 and $120m from the theatrical run. It is impossible to forecast how much it could recoup from the on-demand window and the extent to which the B- CinemaScore from opening weekend will translate into business with the stay-home crowd.
While the North American debut was not what DC Studios co-heads Peter Safran and James Gunn will have wanted as parent Warner Bros Discovery is going through a proposed $111bn sale to Paramount, Safran remained positive.
“While Supergirl didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in,” he told The New York Times on Sunday.
Prior reports have noted that the DC Studios top brass recently met with Paramount CEO David Ellison, who wants to champion broadly appealing films and was said to be enthusiastic about the company’s line-up. The unit’s only other 2026 feature is Clayface, a reported $45m horror sci-fi based on a minor character that carries more modest expectations and arrives on October 23.
Imax results were strong as $7.4m accounted for 19.5% of the weekend and recorded the highest opening weekend indexing of any superhero release for the format.
Man Of Tomorrow, Gunn’s sequel to last year’s $354m hit Superman starring the well-received lead David Corenswet, opens on July 9, 2027. Corenswet, incidentally, will be seen late this year in Paramount’s anticipated American Football drama Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story arriving on December 25.
Paramount’s final stunt comedy instalment Jackass: Best And Last starring johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and their regular gang of masochists arrived in fourth place on $8.4m from 2,855 sites.
Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 fell 56% in its second session and added $70m from 4,425 sites for a promising $297.2m running total. The latest adventures of the toys have already surpassed the final North American grosses of the first and second films on $191.8m and $245.9m, respectively. There is still a way to go before the fifth feature can claim the franchise record: Toy Story 3 earned $415m and Toy Story 4 $434m.
In third place Focus Features’ horror sensation and endurance specialist Obsession dropped a mere 28% in its seventh weekend and added $9.7m from 2,965 locations for a $233.8m cumulative tally. Standing at $371.2m worldwide, it is a matter of time before the film breaches the $400m barrier. It cost around $750,000 to make and Focus acquired most of the world in Toronto last year from Capstone Global.
Universal/Amblin’s sci-fi Disclosure Day from Steven Spielberg has under-performed and ranks fifth after dropping 53% in the third weekend on $8.3m from 3,357 for $94.5m. Kane Parsons’ Backrooms ranks sixth through A24 after a 40% decline in the fifth weekend brought in $4.3m for $184.1m.
And A24 earned some respite from the backlash over its AI partnership with Google as Olivia Wilde’s Sundance premiere swinger comedy The Invite arrived outside the top 10 with one of the best limited debuts of the year. It earned $379,104 from seven screens in New York and Los Angeles for a considerable $54,158 per-site average. Seth Rogen and Wilde play a couple who welcome their neighbours Penelope Cruz and Ed Norton for dinner only to get more than they bargained for.
Angelina Jolie starrer Couture from Alice Winocour opened via Vertical Entertainment on $135,306 from 235 sites. The fashion world drama that premiered in Toronto last year played well in the coastal cities of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dan Diego, and Toronto.
Rentrack reported that overall weekend box office generated $153.5m (up 18% against the same weekend in 2025), pushing year-to-date ro $4.7bn to track 15% ahead of 2025 by the same stage. Summer is pulling away from the year-ago season and is tracking ahead by 17.1%.
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