Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Hollywood’s last hope for superheroes

Box-office returns for superhero movies have diminished since the pandemic. James Gunn hopes his ‘immigrant story’ reverses the trend.

Keiran Southern

David Corenswet, right, is the latest to don the cape for the big screen after, from left, Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill and Kirk Alyn. Picture montage: The Times

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12:46PMJuly 12, 2025

Since his first appearance in 1938, Superman has saved humanity from alien invasions, nuclear destruction and General Zod.

The Man of Steel’s latest mission may not quite decide Earth’s fate, but the stakes are uncomfortably high for Hollywood. Since the halcyon pre-pandemic days when Marvel – the main competitor to DC, the studio that owns Superman – seemed to have an endless supply of billion-dollar blockbusters, audience fatigue has set in.

James Gunn directs his star, David Corenswet, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Picture: DC Studios/Entertainment Pictures/Zumapress.com/Alamy

Critics say the quality of superhero films has dipped, while fans have struggled to keep pace with sprawling storylines across innumerable sequels, prequels and spin-offs. Box office returns have diminished. In 2018 and 2019, the movie genre averaged more than $US1 billion ($1.5bn) worldwide: its average last year was less than half that.

It is against this backdrop that Superman flies into cinemas this weekend, carrying the hopes not just of the studio that made it, Warner Bros, but of Hollywood.

It cost a reported $US225 million, before marketing, and with box office receipts down 26 per cent compared with 2019, the ailing industry is desperate for proof that its most lucrative genre is still capable of saving the day.

“A lot is riding on this film. The DC universe needs this win. Warner Brothers needs this win. The superhero genre, which has dominated 21st-century cinema, needs this win,” said Jonathan Kuntz, a film professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “If Superman is successful, it will be a huge shot in the arm for superhero films.”

Although The Times’s film review called it a “migraine of a movie” and “superhero soup”, many others were positive before Friday’s release.

Whether Superman flies or falls, more superhero films are in the pipeline. Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in two weeks, while Robert Downey Jr has been lured back for new Avengers movies.

“No matter how big a hit Superman is,” Kuntz said, “it’s not going to take us back.”

The Times