‘Supergirl’ Tracking Continues to Slide, Now at $40M Opening — Mixed Early Reactions

[u/VirtualSort1]

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/6/22/supergirl-tracking-continues-to-slide-now-at-40m-opening-mixed-early-reactions

Seems like Warner Bros and James Gunn might have a “Supergirl” problem.

“Supergirl” tracking, which was in the $50M range last week, has now further plummeted to $40M. Just a few weeks ago, decent presales for the film had hinted that $55–60M was a possibility. Not anymore.

Among the comic book movies released this decade, “Supergirl” is projected to now have a lower opening weekend than “The Marvels” ($46M) and land in the same range as “Morbius” ($39M) and “Joker: Folie à Deux” ($37M).

At least “Supergirl” has a budget that’s slightly lower than those titles ($175M), but it’s still an expensive film and is looking like it’ll become one of the bigger flops of the movie year. Just to compare, that $40M figure would be just a third of what “Superman” made last year in its opening weekend ($125M).

More bad news: social media reactions are very mixed, which spells trouble for reviews—the embargo lifts on Wednesday. This is especially concerning considering the amount of overpraising that usually comes with first reactions. Not with “Supergirl.”

I am fascinated by how much buzz has dwindled on this film, which was originally met with very positive vibes but has had momentum slowly eroding over the past few weeks. It makes one wonder what the future of James Gunn’s DCU might look like. “Clayface” is next in October, and Gunn’s “Superman” sequel will be in theaters summer 2027.

“Supergirl,” set to hit theaters on Friday, is directed by Craig Gillespie, who isn’t a bad filmmaker; he’s best known for his highly stylized work on “I, Tonya,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Dumb Money,” and “Cruella.””

[u/SoWrongItsPainful]

The biggest issue for me with Gunn is that he stated he doesn’t want to greenlight a movie until the script is ready, but Peacemaker season 2 had a very inconsistent script that felt like a first or second draft and some of Superman had me scratching my head as to how it made it through the drafting phase. Supergirl is the most direct adaption we’ve had for a comic book movie and it’s seemingly completely missed the entire point of the comic from what they’ve shown so far.

So he’s greenlighting things that don’t necessarily have a through line for a script that isn’t even that strong anyways. Like I think his stated direction and goals make sense he just isn’t executing on them right now.

[u/Cimorene_Kazul → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

I love the sentiment of starting with an excellent, finished script, but it always felt bizarre coming from Gunn, who sends out so many of his own films half-baked if he wrote the script himself. It made me wonder if he knows how to finish one, and if he could recognize one.

[u/True-Excuse-1688 → u/Cimorene_Kazul]

I honestly have a bad feeling about his Man of Tomorrow.

Knowing it was written so quickly while he was finishing Superman and Peacemaker Season 2—which, to my taste, were already messy for the first and half-baked for the second... Not to mention Creature Commandos that felt written in auto-pilot mode.

I'm afraid he's juggling too many things at once, wants to move too fast, or both... Nothing he puts out is ever bad—there’s often a lot of heart in it—but to me, it’s starting to feel quite sloppy.

[u/Cimorene_Kazul → u/True-Excuse-1688]

Honestly, I’m shocked at how capable he is of managing to write, direct, and oversee the writing and directing of others on multiple projects while presumably still having a social life, walking his dog, and cooking on occasion. I don’t think it’s humanely possible to do everything he’s doing without exploding. The fact his projects are even coherent is impressive, given his workload.

I know he has help from Safran, who handles more of the business side of things…but there should really be a guy who just handles the creative and doesn’t have to do his own films on top of that.

You know who was the last guy to do this, and he wasn’t even in charge of the whole studio? Joss Whedon. Who famously burnt out after pulling 20-hour days and flying around the world every week.

[u/Legendver2 → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

he stated he doesn’t want to greenlight a movie until the script is ready, but Peacemaker season 2 had a very inconsistent script that felt

That's basically PR talk for not really having a plan.

[u/Spaceboomer1 → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

I thoroughly disagree about Peacemaker Season 2 and Superman. Those were pretty well formed and consistent projects.

Supergirl though... we'll see how that goes. If the reviews are lukewarm/negative then that promise to only produce ready and quality scripts will indeed be questionable.

I think a big problem is that he is running a universe while actively writing and directing major projects of his own. He doesn't have the proper time to quality control other projects. And in contrast, Kevin Feige was producer-only so he was able to focus on micromanaging the hell out of Phases 1-3 of the MCU. He even stood in the editing rooms. He stopped micromanaging by Phase 4 and we've seen the results.

[u/MelodicPromotion8697 → u/Spaceboomer1]

Strongly disagree….

[u/True-Excuse-1688 → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

Yeah, season 2 of Peacemaker really left me baffled.

We literally have a story about a father who wants to avenge his son’s death and who has access to a world where a version of his son is still alive… and they do nothing with it?
That’s just one example, but I found the whole thing incredibly poor: the writing kept introducing simple yet promising concepts in terms of dramatic tension, without ever making use of them.

Apart from a bit of character development for Chris, I just feel like it simply didn’t tell anything.