Did ‘Supergirl’ Mark the End of an Era for Superhero Movies? The Numbers Say Otherwise

Because we can’t discuss any superhero movie these days without making sweeping declarations about the state of the genre or the health of the studios that made them, the hot take of the week surrounded “Supergirl” and the film’s underwhelming performance at the box office this weekend. The film made $38 million domestic and $68 million worldwide, #2 for the week behind “Toy Story 5,” and a big tick below expectations given the film’s $170 million production budget.

Director Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl” is just the second feature in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s revamped DC Studios, and it’s a huge step down from the $618 million heights of last year’s “Superman.” It opened below “The Marvels,” which made $46.1 million and was widely considered a flop. “Supergirl” might be lucky to hit the $206 million globally that “The Marvels” topped out at.

You might even be amazed to realize that it’s the only superhero movie to release so far in 2026, so it’s not as if this is a case of fatigue. If superhero movies really mattered the way they used to, this should have been one of the most anticipated films of the year.

It doesn’t bode well for October’s “Clayface,” which is more a body horror film than a superhero movie. But the bigger concerns people have are for superhero movies in general, and that perhaps films like “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Doomsday” will turn out softer than exhibitors and studios alike are expecting.

These are the types of movies theater owners circle on the calendar as sure things, and if they’re not, that has an impact on the whole year.

Online, those fears were stoked a bit more off a take from The Ringer’s “Big Picture Pod” that argued “Supergirl” represents the end of the era in which superhero movies are the dominant form of mainstream adult culture. The hosts make that argument that, on a cultural level, “Supergirl” is not the movie all of us need to be talking about on Film Twitter.

I would argue there hasn’t been a superhero movie released on that titanic level since “Spider-Man: No Way Home” made nearly $2 billion back in 2021, and if Christopher Nolan was still making superhero movies, you can damn well bet you would not be seeing any podcast hot takes about the health of the genre.

But let’s really break this down. If you’re comparing it to the absolute box office highs of “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, yes, the superhero genre is and has been in decline, no question. But looking at the last few years, was “Supergirl” an actual turning point or a demarcation for the genre?

The numbers don’t necessarily back that up.

The first thing you’ll notice in the data above (via Rentrak and Box Office Mojo) is there were quite simply fewer superhero movies released last year compared to the prior four years. In 2026, after “Supergirl,” “Clayface,” “Brand New Day,” and “Doomsday,” there will again be only four superhero movies this year, though Marvel is re-releasing “Avengers: Endgame” in September. In 2017, a year that doesn’t include an “Avengers” film, six superhero movies made $1.9 billion, higher than any of the last six years.

But even though there were some high highs each year, the fallow period for the genre seemed to begin back in 2023. That year had “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” cleaning up but also “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “The Flash,” “The Marvels,” “Blue Beetle,” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” rounding out a dull year in which the former DCEU was ending.

The year after that, “Deadpool & Wolverine” surpassed $1.3 billion globally and the third “Venom” film, but you also had some mega bombs in “Joker Folie a Deux,” “Madame Web,” “Kraven the Hunter,” and “The Crow.” Yikes. 2022 had some Marvel smashes with “Black Panther 2,” “Doctor Strange 2,” and “Thor 4,” as well as “The Batman,” but also some duds with “Morbius” and “Black Adam.”

The four movies from last year, “Superman,” “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and “Thunderbolts*” didn’t reach the highs of “Deadpool” in 2024, but they on average well outpaced 2024’s weaker titles from Sony and Warner Bros., and the overall box office brought in by those four superhero films was higher.

The early tracking on “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” suggests the film could be enormous, potentially opening above $225 million according to one source. That would actually be below the $260 million opening of “No Way Home,” which was loaded with nostalgic cameos that had been heavily rumored. Assuming “Supergirl” gets to $200 million and “Clayface” does modestly, both “Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Doomsday” would need to make on average $400 million domestic to approximately total 2025’s haul of about $1.01B. That would make each film among the highest grossing of 2026, but considering the performance of their predecessors, neither is out of the realm of possibility and could be very likely.

So does “Supergirl” need to carry the burden of being the film that ended of an era? You can argue that the genre is as healthy as it has been for a long time, “Supergirl” flop or not, or it’s just as likely the golden age of superhero movies ended a long time ago.