The box office dominance of Batman has allowed Superman to achieve an amazing feat in 2025. As the first installment of the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, Superman‘s box office has always been important. Although James Gunn has insisted that the failures of the DCEU movie timeline have no bearing on Superman‘s success, it is still the start of a new franchise.
This meant that, to ensure the continued output of the DCU beyond 2026, Superman needed to be a box office hit. For the most part, Superman‘s box office has proven it to be exactly this. After crossing a recent milestone, Superman has achieved a staggering feat for the first time in almost a decade for DC, aided by properties relating to Batman.
Batman Has Been DC’s Main Movie Attraction In Recent Film History
Gotham’s Characters Continue To Have Box Office Dominance
Since 2018, Batman properties have been the main DC attraction at the box office. 2019 saw the release of Joker, a Batman-adjacent movie, which grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office on a relatively small $70 million budget. 2022’s The Batman then earned $770 million at the worldwide box office, ensuring part of the character’s cinematic future.
These two properties are the only DC films that have earned over $500 million since 2018, proving just how big a draw Batman still is at the box office. The last DC property that was not linked to Batman to pᴀss this milestone was 2018’s Aquaman. Besides that, 10 other DC movies have failed at the box office.
|
DC Movie |
Budget |
Worldwide Box Office Gross |
|---|---|---|
|
Shazam! |
$100,000,000 |
$367,800,000 |
|
Birds of Prey |
$100,000,000 |
$205,500,000 |
|
Wonder Woman 1984 |
$200,000,000 |
$169,000,000 |
|
The Suicide Squad |
$185,000,000 |
$168,700,000 |
|
Black Adam |
$260,000,000 |
$393,500,000 |
|
Shazam! Fury of the Gods |
$125,000,000 |
$134,100,000 |
|
The Flash |
$220,000,000 |
$271,000,000 |
|
Blue Beetle |
$125,000,000 |
$131,000,000 |
|
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom |
$215,000,000 |
$440,200,000 |
|
Joker: Folie à Deux |
$200,000,000 |
$207,500,000 |
This is certainly an interesting trend. Only Batman properties, besides Joker: Folie à Deux, have managed to earn more than $500 million at the box office since 2018. Of course, some of the above releases, like Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad, were mid-COVID, but the trend remains nonetheless, proving Batman’s box office pulling power.
Superman’s Box Office Record Breaks This Trend For The First Time In Years
With that in mind, Superman becomes the first DC movie to break this trend since Aquaman. Superman‘s third weekend at the worldwide box office saw it hit $503 million, the first time in seven years that a non-DC movie has managed to do so. By the end of its theatrical run, Superman is expected to gross around $600-700 million worldwide.
This is not only a big boost for the DCU, but DC as a brand. Having a movie that can succeed in a way only Batman-centric projects have managed for almost 10 years means that, hopefully, future movies of the same ilk will manage this. Be that 2026’s Supergirl or any of the other DCU projects planned for the coming years, Superman has paved the way for non-Batman projects of the future.
