Superman‘s box office has survived an event that seemed to spell certain doom for the DC Universe movie’s future results. The DCU timeline has now kicked off with its first movie, as Superman brought DC’s new cinematic universe to the big screen in a major way – with its box office naturally being the subject of considerable attention as a result.

Superman‘s box office has thus far held up well, netting it the тιтle of the highest grossing superhero movie of 2025. That said, Superman‘s more recent box office results are in some ways even more interesting than this, because of how they defy what seemed to be the film’s fate.

Superman’s Digital Release Didn’t Bring The Box Office Doom It Seemed It Might

The window between Superman‘s theatrical debut and digital release was a shorter one for the superhero movie world – especially for a film that didn’t bomb at the box office. With Superman becoming available for digital download on August 15, the film was exclusive to cinemas for just a little over a month, which is a relatively narrow window.

While this makes sense – as James Gunn stated in an interview with ScreenRant that, “I wanted everyone to be able to see Superman that wanted to, even those people who couldn’t get to a theater before Peacemaker.” – this did seem to spell the end for Superman‘s box office, since audiences would be able watch the movie at home.

Ultimately, this has appeared to be the reasoning behind superhero films generally releasing digitally a good stretch of time after their theatrical release and run, as to do anything otherwise would be to jeopardize the box office results of a film and reduce the prospective audience of people who are willing and able to see a release in the cinema.

However, weeks after Superman became available outside of cinemas, a different story has emerged. Despite the fact you don’t strictly need to go to the movies to see Superman, the past weeks have garnered the DCU film many millions more at the box office.

For example, the period of August 29 – September 4 reportedly brought in $3 million domestically (via The Numbers), making Superman the eighth highest-grossing movie of that time window. Given the majority of the movies both above and below Superman in these charts aren’t available outside of their theatrical release currently, this is all the more impressive.

Superman’s Post-Digital Release Box Office Results Look Even More Interesting Compared To The MCU

It’s interesting to note that Superman‘s last few weeks being available digitally and in theaters still saw the DC film make more weekly in its domestic box office than either Captain America: Brave New World or Thunderbolts* did after their own digital releases by a fair margin.

For example, Captain America: Brave New World became available digitally on April 15, with the domestic weekly earnings of the film sinking from almost $2 million the previous week to less than half a million the week this took place (as per Box Office Mojo).

Similarly, Thunderbolts* released digitally on July 1, with its domestic box office results decreasing from half a million the prior week to $201 thousand this same week.

Though Superman‘s weekly box office result also fell the same week it released digitally, the DCU film still made $7 million domestically during this time, which is a notable sum, particularly for a film that could be accessed outside of cinemas. As such, it’s clear several factors play key roles in Superman‘s box office holding up past this point.

Why Superman’s Box Office Is Still Making Millions Despite The Film Being Out On Streaming

As the first film in the DCU – and a movie rebooting one of the most popular superheroes of all time – it does make sense that Superman has considerable theatrical staying power. Its unique nature makes it a film audiences are inclined to want to watch – or rewatch – at the cinema, in order to fully experience this point of DC history.

Indeed, event-based cinema has historically encouraged audiences to go see movies in cinemas more, and essentially be a part of film history in this sense, which looks as though it may play its part here. In the same way knowing the DCEU was ending discouraged audiences from seeing its final releases, the opposite seems to be true for Superman itself.

Superman containing a lot of nods to the wider DCU that is about to unfold – as well as having a lighter tone and reviewing well – helps to further explain its continued success. Superman is ultimately the kind of film you want to see in cinemas, making its more recent theatrical results less surprising than it might initially seem.

Though Superman still looks set to end its run some way off being the highest grossing Superman movie of all time, its continued success past what appeared to spell the end for its box office is undeniably impressive. Hopefully, this sets a promising precedent for DC’s new cinematic universe to follow up on going forward.