Director James Gunn’s Superman reboot, hitting theaters this weekend, carries a production and promotional budget in the $300 to $400 million range. The David-Corenswet-starring film will need a big debut in China, where DC Studios has seen its superhero movies go to die or never show at all. Early Superman ticket sales figures suggest the Middle Kingdom could prove to be Kryptonite.
Indian entertainment site Koimoi broke down Chinese pre-sales figures for Superman:
Koimoi noted:
Only 29K screenings are available with pre-sales, hence the collections will increase once more screenings become available. Superman accumulated just $368K after the seventh pre-sales day for the whole July 10-13 period. There are still three days of pre-sales to go before it is released this Friday.
The outlet listed Superman pre-sales in China and compared those figures against recent releases in the country’s theaters, including the hit Aquaman 2.
7-day pre-sales breakdown
- July 10, Thursday previews – $133K
- July 11, Friday opening day – $91K
- July 12, Saturday – $137K
- July 13, Sunday – $6K
- Total – $368K
Comparison with other films’ 7-day pre-sales numbers
1. Dune 2 – $1.3 million
2. Aquaman 2 – $977K
3. Jurassic World Rebirth – $526K
4. Superman – $368K
Jason Mamoa’s 2023 Aquaman 2 went on to make a solid $65 million in China. For DC studios, it’s an outlier.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s 2022 release Black Adam (which loss millions for Warner Bros.) and 2023’s Blue Beetle (another box office bust) never showed in Chinese theaters. Wonder Woman 1984, released in China in 2020, grossed just $25 million there.
It’s not unthinkable that Chinese audiences would turn out big for Superman. Again, $65 million of Aquaman 2‘s $315 million worldwide gross came from China. However, as Koimoi’s figures show, Superman is lagging behind what Aquaman 2 did in pre-sales just a couple years ago.
Warner Bros. wants and needs as much momentum in Superman’s debut weekend, both global and domestic, to help propel its tentpole into the black in subsequent weeks. Pre-sales numbers aren’t everything but they suggest stunted enthusiasm for the film, at least in China.
Early reviews for Superman are as about as good as DC Studios could have hoped for. The film is the first in what the studio hopes to be a successful reboot of what proved to be a laughingstock DC Cinematic Universe, plagued by one bomb after another. Positive word of mouth coming out of this weekend will be crucial. Warner Bros. is collecting just less than half from each ticket sold in the early weeks of a film’s domestic theatrical run. So if Superman debuts domestically at the best-case-scenario number of $150 million, the studio will see slightly less than half that figure. The breakdown is similar for international markets, with each country or territory having its own splits.
Meanwhile, Gunn has created headaches with negative press here at home while promoting his feature, calling the film intentionally political on the subject of immigration and castigating critiques who might disagree with its message. His bluster and the backlash may not matter in china but the margins are razor thin.
Superman hits theaters July 11.
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson
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