It was a lukewarm summer box office this year and neither James Gunn’s Superman nor Disney’s Fantastic Four: First Steps could heat things up.
Hollywood had a strong showing in the box office for the first half of 2025 with hits like A Minecraft Movie and Lilo & Stitch, but things took a downturn during the summer when Superman and Fantastic Four failed to break into profitability despite following Jurassic World Rebirth, which cracked over $800 million worldwide.
“By the end of the Aug. 15-17 weekend, year-over-year revenue was down 6 percent amid a slowdown in event titles,” noted The Hollywood Reporter.. “Worse, it lagged more than 11 percent compared with 2023. The late-summer box office was counting on Fantastic Four to carry over into August in a major way. Instead, the Marvel movie quickly lost it groove.”
“And whereas most had predicted that summer revenue would certainly catch up with 2023’s $4 billion, that’s now out of the question. Comscore is predicting roughly $3.75 billion-plus, a 2 percent uptick from 2024, when late July tentpole Deadpool & Wolverine saved the late-summer corridor by opening to $211 million on its way to raking in $1.33 billion globally,” it continued. “Pixar’s Inside Out 2 also cleared the $1 billion mark in summer 2024, grossing north of $1.66 billion. Still, if the $3.75 billion figure holds, that would be 8.4 percent behind 2023.”
Summer 2025 also marks the first in recent post-pandemic history where not a single Hollywood movie crossed $600 million or $500 million domestically.
Gunn’s Superman adaptation boasted a likely production budget north of $325 million after factoring in marketing and promotional costs, meaning it would need a global haul of at least $650 million to turn a profit for the studio. Some have blamed the film’s box office woes on an overall dissatisfaction with superhero films in general, given that Marvel’s Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts also performed poorly at the box office despite rave reviews and positive fan reaction.
“People haven’t stopped loving horror or superhero films, but they stopped loving mediocre entries in those worlds,” exhibitor Mike Barstow, executive VP of Midwest-based ACX Cinemas, told Variety. “There’s a demand for higher quality.”
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
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