all due respect to “Creature Commandos”). Gunn, known best as the director of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, is heading up DC Studios alongside producer Peter Safran. The question is, can this reboot of DC’s golden boy get the revamped DCU off to a better start than the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) got over a decade ago?
As of this writing, “Superman” is expected to pull in between $130 and $171 million domestically when it opens next weekend, per Box Office Theory. Those numbers are just ever so slightly down from early projections, which had Gunn’s film pulling in anywhere between $90 and $185 million, depending on who you talked to. Meanwhile, mid-June tracking had the blockbuster pulling in over/under $135 million, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Warner Bros. previously launched its first shared live-action DC cinematic universe, aka the DCEU, with director Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” in 2013, just one year after Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” wrapped up his Batman trilogy. Snyder’s take on Superman, which starred Henry Cavill, opened to $116.9 million domestically, which was, by 2013 standards, a solid launch.
“Man of Steel” finished its run at the box office with $668 million worldwide against a reported $225 million budget. Interestingly enough, Gunn’s “Superman” is said to carry a very similar production budget. What’s interesting is that, unadjusted for inflation, if pre-sales cool down and this movie opens even a little below current projections, it could have a near-identical opening to Snyder’s divisive take on the titular character. 12 years later and yet so much remains the same.
