The highly anticipated Supergirl has struggled to take flight on its opening weekend, coming in on the lower end of box office expectations in the US, earning $38 million, with a worldwide opening of $68 million, one of the lower openings for a major blockbuster this summer season so far.
The box office performance of the movie has sparked concern that Supergirl may struggle to reach its break-even point of $300-350 million worldwide across the summer, given the crowded summer blockbuster slate that is now following.
A so-so Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 56% and an audience score of 76% also suggest that the re-introduction of Kara Zor-El, played by Milly Alcock, may be struggling to gain traction with audiences.
Much like Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman and Brie Larson's Captain Marvel before her, certain corners of the fandom have felt it their right to comment and criticize the appearance of the superhero lead, with Alcock being subject to a toxic discourse that has accompanied many female-led superhero movies.
However, despite this backlash, movies like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel were hits, with Larson's Captain Marvel making over $1 billion worldwide, demonstrating that toxic fandom has rarely ever had a direct impact on box office performance.
The struggles of Supergirl at the box office may also be a symptom of a larger issue facing the superhero genre, one of audience fatigue for a genre that has dominated screens for over 25 years.
Audiences seem much more hesitant to take risks on superhero properties that are less well known in recent years, or with properties where they've been burned before, and the introduction of numerous TV spin-offs has made it harder than ever for casual movie-goers to keep up with exactly what is happening in each comic-book universe.
The poor marketing and word of mouth for Supergirl, as well as its lack of standout quality, have also been cited as factors in its struggles at the box office, with the movie's demographic showing that young women, surely the target audience of this particular entry, simply didn't show up.
Despite a strong turn from Alcock, the movie is a pretty dull and episodic adventure across the stars that recycles bits and pieces from comic-book movies of the last 20 years to diminishing effect, leaving Kara Zor-El stranded in a stacked summer season of blockbusters, and will likely be quickly forgotten about.
The struggles of Supergirl at the box office will likely be a test for DC Studios as they continue to navigate the challenges of the superhero genre in a climate where superhero movies simply don't fly like they used to.
