‘Supergirl’ Is Now Losing the Box Office Battle to ‘Morbius’ With Shockingly Low Daily Earnings
Box office comparisons can be brutal shorthand for just how badly a film is struggling, and few reference points carry as much cultural baggage as the infamous flop that became an internet punchline back in 2022.
When a new release starts getting stacked up against that particular movie, it usually means the numbers have already told the whole story. This week, that exact comparison found its way to one of DC Studios’ biggest 2026 releases.
‘Supergirl‘ opened in late June, starring Milly Alcock as Superman’s cousin Kara Zor El, produced on a reported budget between $170 million and $186 million, with an additional $120 million spent on marketing. The film debuted well below expectations with $37.1 million domestically and roughly $62.6 million worldwide, then proceeded to drop 77 percent in its second weekend, falling out of the domestic box office top 5 after just 2 weeks in theaters.
The comparisons have gotten considerably more pointed. Tracking the third weekend results for 2 very different superhero movies released 4 years apart, Jared Leto’s widely mocked ‘Morbius‘ earned $4.6 million in its third weekend back in 2022, while ‘Supergirl’ pulled in just $3.5 million over the same weekend window this year. That gap places Supergirl behind a film that has spent years serving as shorthand for box office disaster.
‘Morbius’ has occupied a unique place in box office infamy since its April 2022 release, earning a 17 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and becoming the subject of relentless internet memes that eventually convinced Sony to attempt an ill-fated theatrical re-release 2 months later. Despite that reputation, the film still managed a $39.1 million opening weekend and held onto enough audience interest to gross $4.7 million in its actual third weekend, a number that has now become the unlikely bar Supergirl failed to clear.
That comparison lands even harder given how differently the two productions were positioned heading into release. ‘Morbius’ arrived as a spinoff for a villain with limited mainstream recognition working off a modest $75 million budget, while ‘Supergirl’ represented a much bigger swing for Warner Bros and DC Studios as the second major release in their newly rebooted cinematic universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran. A film built to anchor a franchise falling behind one of the genre’s most notorious punchlines is exactly the kind of stat that turns into an instant talking point online.
Analysts have already projected that ‘Supergirl’ could lose somewhere between $80 million and $120 million once its theatrical run concludes, with Warner Bros already cutting more than 1,000 theaters from its release as the studio shifts focus toward a late July digital release to help recoup costs. DC Studios co CEO Peter Safran has downplayed the financial disappointment as part of a broader long-term strategy, pointing to upcoming releases like October’s ‘Clayface’ and next summer’s Superman sequel as reasons for continued confidence in the franchise.
What do you think is the biggest reason behind Supergirl’s disappointing performance?
Whether Supergirl’s underperformance ultimately proves to be a minor bump in DC Studios’ rebuilding process or a more serious signal about audience appetite for lesser-known comic book characters remains an open question. What is clear is that getting outperformed by Morbius, of all films, in a head-to-head weekend comparison is not the kind of headline any studio wants attached to its franchise cornerstone.
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