Supergirl fell 74% in its second weekend, the biggest drop of the year for a wide release

Kara Zor-El can outrun a bullet. She could not outrun word of mouth.

DC Studios' Supergirl took in $9.6 million domestically over the July 3-5 weekend, down 74% from its opening. For a movie playing in more than 3,600 theaters, that is the steepest second-weekend fall any wide release has taken in 2026. It is also the second-worst sophomore drop in the history of DC's live-action films, behind only Joker: Folie a Deux, which cratered 81% on its way to becoming a punchline.

The company saw it coming. Co-CEO Peter Safran put out a statement the previous Sunday saying the film "didn't meet our box office expectations." Ten days in, the total sits at $58.4 million. That is not a soft landing. That is the floor giving way.

The company it now keeps

A 74% drop puts Supergirl in a specific, unhappy neighborhood. Here is where it lands among DC's worst second weekends.

The Dark Phoenix comparison is the one that should sting. That film fell 71.5% to $9.3 million in its second frame and became shorthand for a superhero brand running out of gas. Supergirl just landed a few feet below it. For scale, this summer's other big cape movie, Superman, dropped about 53% in its second weekend and kept walking. Legs like that are what a healthy release looks like. Supergirl doesn't have them.

The math is the story

Craig Gillespie directed this one, Ana Nogueira wrote it, and Milly Alcock carries it as the second lead character launched in James Gunn and Safran's rebooted DC Universe, after Superman. Alcock is not the problem here, and neither, by most accounts, is the movie. The problem is arithmetic.

The film has added only about $42 million internationally, enough to nudge it past $100 million worldwide against a reported break-even somewhere near $300 million. Trade estimates have DC losing $100 million or more on the theatrical run. Domestically it is now tracking to finish somewhere in the $70 to $80 million range, which would put it in the company of films nobody at a studio wants to be compared to.

What it means for the DCU

Superman gave the new regime a win and a lot of goodwill. Supergirl was supposed to be the follow-through, the proof that Gunn and Safran could launch a bench and not just a headliner. Instead it is the second film in a brand-new universe posting numbers that look like the tail end of an old, tired one. One movie does not sink a slate. But a 74% drop is the market telling you something, and the smart move is to listen before the next one opens.

Where it finishes is nearly settled. A run that ends around $75 million domestic on a movie built to cost several times that is the kind of result that gets discussed in earnings calls and greenlight meetings for a while. Supergirl can fly. The box office, this time, would not.