Superman (2025) Spoiler Review/My Box Office Prediction
- Steele Wyndham
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
This article contains SPOILERS for DC Studios' Superman (2025)
Review
From the moment James Gunn announced a new Superman movie back in January 2023, I was super excited. I had grown up with Superman, from watching Christopher Reeve's classic portrayal of the character in Superman (1978), to Dean Cain's version from Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997), to Henry Cavill's darker version in Man of Steel (2013).
Originally announced as Superman: Legacy, James Gunn promised a bright, hopeful Superman inspired by the All-Star Superman comic book run. Well, I am happy to declare: The Gunn did not jam. Superman is exactly what Gunn promised: a bright, hopeful movie that feels like it's ripped out of a comic book.
The standouts of the film are David Corenswet, who plays dual roles of Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman and Ultraman/Hammer of Boravia, and Nicholas Hoult, who plays Lex Luthor. Corenswet brought an energy and good ol’ fashioned goodness to Superman that hasn’t been present (on the big screen) since Brandon Routh’s Superman in Superman Returns (2006), which in and of itself is a homage sequel to the Donner Superman films. Nicholas Hoult's portrayal of Lex Luthor was arguably the most ruthless to date, as he started a war, murdered a man in cold blood, and unleashed a Kaiju on Metropolis, all to inconvenience and harm Superman.
The supporting cast for the film is quite strong. The Justice Gang was a great addition to the film, particularly one of their members, Edi Gathegi‘s Mr. Terrific, who, in my opinion, had the best fight scene in the entire movie. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner/Green Lantern was a nice piece of comedic relief. Unfortunately, Isabela Merced‘s Hawkgirl falls short with only a couple of minutes of screen time and a handful of lines. Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho was great and was the MVP of the scenes in the pocket dimension. Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane is shown to be a feisty but fantastic reporter and has amazing chemistry with Corenswet’s Superman. I wish we had seen more of the two together. Skyler Gisondo plays Jimmy Olsen perfectly, and his uncanny ability with the ladies ended up indirectly saving the world (watch the film, it will make sense).
The story is very well written. The plotline with the Boravian-Jarhanpurian War was, in my opinion, a clear allegory for the current conflict between Israel and Palestine. Gunn balances multiple characters well, and at no point in the film did it feel like it was less of a "Superman" film and more of a "Superman and Friends" film. The film makes a bold choice in having the first thing we see be an injured Superman, but I feel like it instantly makes this version of the Man of Steel more human than past adaptations. The twist of Ultraman being a clone of Superman was predictable, but it worked well. The emotional beats worked perfectly, especially the farm scene with Pruitt Taylor Vince's Pa Kent and Clark.
The cinematography is bright and makes this film stand out from other Superman movies and other films in general. As mentioned above, the film looks and feels like a comic book come to life. James Gunn, yet again, is right on the money with the music choices in the film, although this movie features more score music than any of Gunn's previous work.
Overall, this film is one of the best comic book movies of all time, and I guarantee that time will make this film even better than it already is.
Solid 9.5/10 film. Great start to DC Studios' new DCU.
Box Office Prediction
Superman (2025) has a $225 million production budget, marketing budget is unknown. The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter revealed that it needs $500 million worldwide to “technically make back its budget,” but needed closer to $700 million to be “successful.” The standard rule for box office profit for a big Hollywood production is to take the production budget times 2.5, and that number is the break-even point, which for this movie would be $562.5 million, with the added ".5" to take into account for the cut that both marketing distribution departments and theaters take home, and for taxes. Superman (2025) opened with $125 million domestically and $95 million overseas for a total of $220 million global debut for the first weekend. If the movie has a 55% drop or more, especially since it made a slightly disappointing less than $100 million overseas, it will likely not be a huge financial success. If the movie keeps going this way financially, it won’t be a flop and will probably technically make its budget back, but it won’t be considered a big success either.
For comparison, The Batman (2022), another highly praised DC film, had a $258.2 million opening weekend worldwide and ended up grossing $772.3 million total worldwide, but also had a weaker domestic performance and a higher overseas performance than Superman (2025).
Based on those numbers and seeing the difference between the long-standing overseas numbers of The Batman (2022) and the projections for Superman (2025), my prediction is that Superman (2025) will earn:
$550-$650 million total worldwide by the end of its theatrical run.
Will I be right? Who knows. I'll update this post once Superman (2025) is out of theaters and put how much it actually made below and how far off I was.
-Steele Wyndham
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