{"id":67715,"date":"2025-07-16T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67715\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T17:26:09","slug":"is-superman-a-success-budget-cast-salaries-and-more-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67715\/","title":{"rendered":"Is ‘Superman’ a Success? Budget, Cast Salaries and More Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAhead of the world premiere of James Gunn<\/a>\u2019s \u201cSuperman<\/a>\u201d on July 7, DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran took the stage to thank the most important person seated in the audience \u2014 Warner Bros. Discovery president CEO David Zaslav<\/a> \u2014 \u201cfor your faith and trust in James and in me to make this movie and to kick-start the new era of DC.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, there were only a few echoes of DC past inside the TCL Chinese Imax theater, including Michael Rosenbaum, who played Lex Luthor in the long-running series \u201cSmallville,\u201d and Will Reeve, the son of the late Christopher Reeve and thus ambassador to the Richard Donner \u201cSuperman\u201d oeuvre. Otherwise, the night stood as the dawn of a new beginning for the film franchise that has earned $16.8 billion over 58 films at the box office but has been eclipsed in recent years by crosstown rival Marvel.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut did Gunn, who took the reins of DC with Safran in 2022 and also wrote and produced the film, pull off a franchise jump-start? The refrain heard on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and around Hollywood was \u201cGood enough,\u201d accompanied by a sigh of relief as Gunn\u2019s movie lifted off to $220 million worldwide, ushering in a 10-year vision for DC.<\/p>\n

\n\tZaslav took a victory lap before the ink was dry on the weekend\u2019s box office numbers, calling the performance soaring and \u201cjust the first step.\u201d But his posture struck many in town as odd and premature given that CEOs rarely weigh in publicly about a film\u2019s opening weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDomestically, \u2018Superman\u2019 stuck the landing, but international numbers are disappointing,\u201d says box office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations of the $95 million overseas haul. \u201cFor \u2018Superman\u2019 to be one of the biggest summer blockbusters \u2014 not to mention reset an entire universe \u2014 the film needed to pack more punch in its debut. Obviously, the following weeks will tell the true box office tale, but this has to be viewed as a slightly underwhelming start for DC and WB.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMore importantly, Wall Street is feeling good about the bow. Warner Bros. Discovery stock jumped 2.4%, from $11.73 at the close of July 11 to $12.01 by the end of the day on July 14. Wall Street analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities calls the film\u2019s performance \u201cvery impressive domestically and a huge boost for the franchise given some worries coming in.\u201d He adds: \u201cThe international is a mixed, but overall an A- weekend for \u2018Superman.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd one top agent says he can understand a little crowing from Zaslav. \u201cConsidering the press treated him like the village idiot\/punching bag for so long, you can\u2019t blame a guy for grabbing on to any piece of good news,\u201d says the agent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film cost $225 million and another $125 million to market globally, the latter including pricey stunts like a Superman figure hovering at the apex of London\u2019s tallest building, The Shard, on July 1. One rival studio executive estimated that the Shard gambit alone cost seven figures. Warners always believed that Superman would under-index internationally because the titular hero is inextricably linked with \u201cthe American way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTypically, a film\u2019s stars earn the top salaries. But in this case, Gunn was by far the highest earner, pulling down 20 times more than David Corenswet (Superman\/Clark Kent) and Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), who each earned $750,000 to Gunn\u2019s $15 million, according to sources (Gunn also draws a seven-figure salary as the studio\u2019s top executive).<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Nicholas Hoult, who plays archvillain Lex Luthor, nabbed a $2 million payday. Although Warner Bros. has sequel options on Corenswet and Brosnahan, a sequel announcement does not appear to be imminent. Instead, sources say the studio is fast-tracking a \u201cWonder Woman\u201d movie. And the studio is thrilled with Matt Reeves\u2019 just-submitted screenplay draft for the sequel to \u201cThe Batman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Brothers declined comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Zack Snyder\u2019s \u201cMan of Steel,\u201d which marked the last DC reset, performed better when adjusted for inflation, earning $200 million worldwide in its opening frame, or $276 million in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd \u201cSuperman\u201d will need to keep audiences filling up the cineplex to be deemed a true success. That seems likely given the critical and fan response, with word of mouth strong thanks to an A- CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, \u201cSuperman\u201d largely avoided stepping into the culture wars until too late in the film\u2019s run-up to make a difference. Gunn\u2019s brother Sean, who plays Maxwell Lord in the film, told Variety at the premiere: \u201cWe love our immigrants. Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants. And if you don\u2019t like that, you\u2019re not American.\u201d On the other side of the political divide, Frank Grillo, who plays Rick Flag Sr., sparked a ripple of anti-MAGA outrage when he liked an opening-weekend social media post released by the White House depicting President Donald Trump as the Man of Steel along with the caption \u201cTHE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut one hot-button issue is resonating with some moviegoers. Pro-Palestinian activists and influencers are hailing the film on social media for what they see as an overt rebuke of Israel in the wake of its deadly military campaign in Gaza. In the film, Lex Luthor has started a foreign war and is making billions off the conflict. The aggressor nation, dubbed Bovaria, drops bombs and oppresses its desert neighbor until Superman saves the day.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has a massive following, called the film \u201ctwo hours and like 10 minutes of fuck Israel the entire time\u201d \u2014 a sentiment echoed across social media on opening weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, the timeline might not align with Israel as a stand-in for Bovaria. Gunn turned in his script in May 2023, months before the current Israel-Gaza conflict escalated.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the perception may ultimately help keep \u201cSuperman\u201d in the conversation long after opening weekend. Says Bock: \u201cThe saving grace for the new DCU might be if the film can go 12 rounds and stay in theaters throughout August.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(Rebecca Rubin contributed to this report.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the world premiere of James Gunn\u2019s \u201cSuperman\u201d on July 7, DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran took…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[47781,171,956,9180,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-67715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-david-zaslav","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-james-gunn","11":"tag-superman","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114864087641320895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}