Box Office Milestone: ‘Superman’ First Superhero Pic of Year to Fly Past $600 Million Globally

Box Office Milestone: ‘Superman’ First Superhero Pic of Year to Fly Past $600 Million Globally

Superman has become the first superhero pic to soar past the $600 million mark at the 2025 global box office in a morale boost for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios. Gunn also directed the film.

The big-budget tentpole achieved the feat early Friday morning after finishing Thursday with $599.6 million in global ticket sales, including $343.6 million domestically and $256 million overseas. This weekend, F1: The Movie will — from Apple Original Films and released in partnership with Warners — will also blow past the $600 million mark at the worldwide box office. That Formula One pic’s performance has been far more of a surprise, considering racing movies have often struggled, whereas superhero films are considered far more of a sure bet, or were. While easily ranking as the top-grossing comic book movie of the year so far, Superman hasn’t been able to escape kryptonite altogether as superhero fatigue continues to make audiences more discerning.

Superman, which boasts a hefty net budget of at least $225 million before marketing, is Safran and Gunn’s inaugural release as they go about reinvigorating the DC brand at the behest of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav after the DC Extended Universe faltered with a string of recent misses including The Flash, Aquamanand The Lost Kingdom, Blue Beetle and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Gunn’s movie has been embraced by critics and audiences alike, in addition to besting rival Marvel Studios, which has seen all three of its three 2025 titles — The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World — struggle. The Fantastic Four relaunch, opening two weeks after Superman, has earned $472.7 million to date globally after suffering steep declines despite receiving the same sort of stellar audience and critic scores that Superman did, if not better. The Captain America reboot topped out at $415 million globally, while early summer tentpole Thunderbolts* rests at $382.4 million.

DC knows all about being the underdog. Superman is the first DC release to achieve the $600 million milestone since The Batman in 2022. That pic topped out at $772.5 million globally, not adjusted for inflation. Matt Reeves’ movie wasn’t part of the DCEU. Ditto for Todd Phillips’ The Joker, which earned $1.078 billion globally in 2019.

In terms of a DCEU title, the last movie to cross $600 million globally was 2018’s Aquaman. (The Jason Momoa starrer grossed $1.148 billion worldwide.)

Superman became the first superhero film to cross $100 million in its North American opening since Marvel Studios and Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool & Wolverine launched to $211 million in summer 2024 on its way to grossing a record-smashing $1.338 billion worldwide. And, at the time, it was only the third movie of 2025 so far to launch north of $100 million behind A Minecraft Movie, which opened to $162.8 million, and Lilo & Stitch, which started off with $146 million. Since then, The Fantastic Four also debuted north of $100 million domestically.

All told, Superman ranks No. 6 on the list of the year’s top-grossing films globally behind DreamWorks Animation’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon ($626.1 million), Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth ($829.9 million), Warners’ A Minecraft Movie ($955.1 million), Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch ($1.03 billion) and Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha II ($1.89 billion).

In North America, Superman has now surpassed each of the last two films featuring the marquee hero, not adjusted for inflation. In 2016, Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice grossed $330.4 million in North America, preceded by the $219 million earned domestically by solo Superman pic Man of Steel in 2013.

Global numbers are another matter because of the foreign box office, where superhero fatigue is in full bloom, among other challenges. Dawn of Justice flew to $544 million internationally for a global total of $874.4 million, while Man of Steel topped out at $379.1 million overseas for a worldwide tally of $668 million. Chances are dimming that Gunn’s Superman will be able to even catch up with Man of Steel.

Gunn’s film stars David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Rounding out the cast are Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific.