Godd**** it. Folks thought we were on the cusp of reviving all the stars in a year that has been glorious for horror, animation, Spider-Man, Christopher Nolan, and Michael Jackson’s continued pop culture fandom. Oh, and the resurgence of the Avengers brand to remind everyone that Endgame is once again your highest global earner, in time for a rock-and-…, oh sorry, “doomsday” adventure with Doomsday in December.
Well, DC couldn’t muster the energy to compete with a C-level territory film to its A-star Batman/Superman rights. Clayface topped the box office with a $24 million domestic opening weekend, which is good enough for a lower-budget horror flick but not so much for a superhero film or a “what else you got for me test” under the continued ways of Marvel/DC fanfare. And with only a $46.5 million global debut, something is going to haggle DC once again before they really get started with another universe. To be fair, this isn’t the 1-2 punch of the “critics vs. audiences” atrocities of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which announced to the world that A) DC was nowhere near Marvel’s uncharted “riding in the stars” territory to compete with them and B) the racketting of some explosive titles doesn’t merit much despite them making a “reasonable” amount of money. However, with Clayface and Supergirl’s collapse earlier this year, DC is still no Marvel.
It’s the second-lowest opening for a live-action name-brand DC Comics movie in the post-Avengers era, and opened lower than the likes of Blue Beetle, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and above only Wonder Woman 1984 (to be fair, the Wonder Woman sequel opened concurrently on HBO MAX during the COVID uncertain times at the end of 2020 with $16.4 million from the multiplex). And if you want to stretch the skin further, it opened lower than the wildly panned Morbius ($39 million in 2022) and Madame Web ($25 million in 2024). Even with an A- from CinemaScore, moderately positive reviews, and a lower-than-average-for-a-superhero movie budget of $40 million, it’s already shaping up to be a bit of a mess for the James Gunn/Peter Safran game of “how the hell do we sell the next batch of DC films that have no correlation with our A-list superheroes?”.
Maybe it will pan out domestically and still succeed in North America like Solo, Lightyear, Twisters, or The Little Mermaid, but it has to be leggy enough over the Halloween season. Or, it could just drop lifeless despite being a good IP play à la Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Power Rangers, or Transformers One. And it’s only going to get Halloween to savor its skin-stretching abilities as it will ram its head against Godzilla: Minus Zero, Ramayana, and The Cat in the Hat in less than two weeks. Based on legs, it will probably nab around $55-60 million domestically and maybe $120 million worldwide, on par with Supergirl. Does that justify a success for a $40 million-budgeted Batman-villain spin-off? Somewhat, but this isn’t 2016-2018 anymore, when every superhero film would literally dance.
In other great news, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s three-hour Elizabeth Holmes-centric documentary You Can See Everything earned $19.5 million on its second weekend. The Oscar race may have already left its footprints on this one, as it’s becoming another FOMO event in 2026 for originals- or should we say a documentary(?) this time around. It will be passing $50 million domestically sometime by Tuesday morning. Could it go on an insane run and leg out to over $100 million domestically? Very likely, and then going after domestic runs like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
Newcomer Wildwood opened with $11 million domestically, securing the bronze, while Wicker opened with $5.75 million. In gruesome news, Street Fighter collapsed 72% with $8.6 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $46.9 million and $79.6 million. That means it may already be another bust, losing an estimated $50 million in total, despite folks seeming to have fun with its characters and spunk. Perhaps, as we’ve said all the time, not all IP is good IP.
Other Mommy will be passing $100 million globally sometime later this week, Sense and Sensibility will pass $30 million tonight, Whalefall has passed $31 million worldwide (sorry to Austin Abrams, this ain’t no Resident Evil, which has topped $385 million worldwide and became Zach Cregger’s highest-earning film), and Verity will pass $75 million domestically soon.
Next weekend sees the release Christmas at the Kringles, The Mongoose, Queen at Sea, and Stiletto.
