Superman’s Record-Breaking Streak Continues: The Highest-Grossing “Superman” Film in History
According to the CinemaDrame news agency, Superman, directed by James Gunn, has reached $331 million in the United States after adding last weekend’s earnings to its domestic total. By surpassing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder, it has broken the record for the highest-grossing Superman film in U.S. history. This reboot had previously earned the title of the highest-grossing standalone Superman film domestically.
Until now, Snyder’s Man of Steel, with a worldwide gross of $670 million, has remained the top-grossing standalone Superman film. Its closest competitor is Gunn’s Superman at $587 million, followed by Superman Returns with $391 million, and the very first Superman film with $300 million. These numbers, however, still fall far short of the billion-plus grosses of Batman and Spider-Man.
With more than $578 million worldwide, Superman is the highest-grossing superhero film of 2025 so far, and it will remain in theaters for several more weeks. However, it seems unlikely that the film will earn the additional $100 million needed in that time to surpass the $670 million gross of Man of Steel.
Despite all these records, some speculate that Gunn’s Superman would have to gross $650 million just to break even. When a Threads user brought up this rumor, Gunn responded: “Completely false. Anyone who says that doesn’t understand the film industry—and if we’d made the first film of a franchise in such a way that it needed that kind of gross to break even, we’d be idiots.”
Last year, it was reported that Gunn’s Superman had a production budget of $363 million. Warner Bros. officially announced the production cost as $225 million, but allocated several million more to marketing.
This week, Warner Bros. became the first studio in history to release six films with an opening weekend gross exceeding $40 million, with the debut of Weapons.
Superman will be available on digital platforms on August 26, 2025 (Shahrivar 4, 1404), about 45 days after its theatrical release.
