James Gunn’s Superman has climbed domestic charts to become the highest-grossing standalone Superman film in the United States and Canada. The film opened in July 2025 as the launch title for DC Studios’ Chapter One and posted a robust opening weekend. The opening weekend was reported at about $122 million, placing it among the year’s top debuts.
Within weeks its domestic total passed the $300 million mark and meaning that the new Superman had overtaken the North American totals of earlier solo entries such as Man of Steel (2013) and Superman Returns (2006). The film displacing previous domestic collections within roughly an 18-day window would mean that this is indeed a milestone that will be key for the DC reboot.
James Gunn’s Superman is a winner
Apart from the box office success, critical reaction to Gunn’s Superman has been largely positive too. People have consistently singled out David Corenswet’s central performance and Gunn’s tonal reset as factors that have worked well for the film. In addition, the film’s emotional grounding and world-building have also found favour with both critics as well as audiences.
Has the film earned enough yet?
Despite it’s success, there have been people who believe that Superman needs to make $650 million to be labelled a success. When a fan posed this very question to the director of the film on social media, James Gunn had a very clear response when he wrote: “Absolutely false. Anyone saying that doesn’t have an understanding of the film business – and we would be idiots to make a first-in-a-franchise film that would need to make that much to be profitable.”
