After an underwhelming debut at the box office, Hollywood analysts are predicting disaster for “Supergirl.”
The latest installment from the famed DC Comics series stars Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, the world-saving cousin of Superman, who has to face off against an alien bounty hunter (played by Jason Mamoa) in search of an antidote to save her super-dog Krypto.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, “Supergirl” debuted June 26 and was expected to piggyback off the success of the James Gunn-led “Superman” reboot in 2025 despite boasting a reported budget of roughly $175 million and another $75 million in marketing costs.
But after earning only $38 million domestically and $30 million internationally its opening weekend, “Supergirl” is projected to stall at a lifetime gross box office of as much as $210 million internationally, according to Variety. Apart from a dramatic reversal, “Supergirl” could lose anywhere from $100 million to $120 million in its theatrical run, Variety reported.
In addition to a strong summer box office competition that includes Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” “Minions & Monsters,” and Disney’s live-action “Moana,” “Supergirl” also faced some backlash after Alcock said in a Vanity Fair interview that she’s being targeted by critics for “simply existing as a woman” in a male-dominated superhero franchise.
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” Alcock told the outlet. “We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself.”
Last month, the 26-year-old actress pushed back at criticism of her comments in an interview with Variety, in which she took aim at users who identify as Christian dads on faceless social media profiles.
“It’s from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts,” she explained. “Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me. But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you’re pissing the right kind of people off, you’re doing okay.”
The anti-Christian comments from the “Supergirl” actress marked a sharp reversal for the “Superman” franchise, an American cultural icon that has long been rumored to echo the narrative of the New Testament.
Glen Weldon, author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, previously noted that because Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both Jewish, intentional “Christian ideation or allegory” was unlikely. Nevertheless, said Weldon, “that doesn’t mean people can’t see in the character … elements of Christian theology.”
“These characters are the cultural myths and folklore of contemporary America, the stories we tell ourselves,” Weldon told The Christian Post in 2013. “We imbue them with extra meanings, so what I see in Superman will be slightly different than what you see.”
Weldon noted the strongly implied Christ comparisons in a couple cinematic renderings of Superman. “In 1978, Richard Donner’s ‘Superman: The Movie,’ Marlon Brando intoned a speech which set the ears of anyone who spent time in Bible School burning: ‘Because of [the people of Earth’s] capacity for good, I have sent them you … my only son,'” said Weldon.
