James Gunn has broken his silence following Supergirl’s box office disappointment after recent comments on his favorite social media platform. The DC Studios co-CEO sent Supergirl into theaters worldwide on June 26 as the second film in his rebooted DC Universe, and it stumbled out of the gate. Whatever Gunn thinks about those numbers, he is keeping it to himself.
Gunn has largely avoided replying to fans on Threads since Supergirl’s worldwide release, the app where he is now most active. The Superman director was absent from the app for almost two weeks following the release of the Milly Alcock-led film, before he made a brief remark on July 8 regarding Man of Tomorrow‘s CinemaCon presentation, clarifying that it consisted of behind-the-scenes footage and not a full teaser.
His temporary silence on the app was notable because of how chatty Gunn usually is. In the run-up to the film, he used Threads to explain how Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El could have pierced ears despite bulletproof skin, an answer that made headlines within days. He also swatted down a rumor that Ryan Reynolds was ever seriously offered a Green Lantern role ahead of the Lanterns series. Then Supergirl arrived, and the replies stopped.
Even after returning briefly, his presence on Threads hasn’t returned in full force, with Gunn’s replies to fans now being much more sporadic in the past few weeks. Most recently on July 18, Gunn shared a post about Big Brother star Rick Devens shouting out the director on the show. In response to a fan asking if Devens could appear in Man of Tomorrow, Gunn indicated that this would not be possible due to scheduling:
Gunn: “No because he’s on Big Brother! Otherwise he would have been!”
Gunn later clarified to another fan that Devens was intended to appear in Man of Tomorrow at one point, but his Big Brother obligations came first:
Gunn: “He was gonna appear in the background of MoT but he had to cancel (his awesome wife and kids still came). He couldn’t tell me why but told me I’d be excited. Obviously I was!”
Amidst all of this though, it is notable that Gunn has not directly addressed Supergirl‘s box office performance.
No other executive at Gunn’s level is as active online as he is. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige runs no personal accounts, and most studio chiefs speak through press releases or trade interviews. Gunn does the opposite, which has been quite refreshing. He confirms castings himself and debunks fake reports within hours. Fans ask him plot questions most executives would never touch, and he answers them, in front of 1.8 million followers on Threads and millions more across his other platforms. He even shared the DCU’s first slate of projects on his own accounts in early 2023, and his profiles now double as an official DC news source.
Gunn described that routine in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, admitting that a team helps run his accounts while insisting “it’s always me, it’s always my words:”
“Listen, a lot of my social networking is done by other people. It’s always me, it’s always my words, but a lot of times there’s other people that are posting it. And a lot of other times, other people are bringing me questions offline from online, and I’ll answer them and send them those answers.”
He added that followers can spot when he is personally at the keyboard, usually during long flights or car rides, because “there’ll be like five, six answers in a row about once every three weeks.” Sadly, those bursts have been even less frequent.
His mood isn’t exactly surprising given how abysmal the numbers are. Supergirl debuted to $37.1 million domestically, below even the $37.6 million start of Joker: Folie à Deux, one of the most infamous flops in recent memory. Its second weekend brought a 74% collapse to $9.6 million, a steeper fall than The Flash or Morbius ever suffered. Through two weekends, the Craig Gillespie movie grossed $100.5 million worldwide against a production budget reported to be around $170 million, plus a marketing campaign said to have cost more than $100 million. Estimates suggest the film needed roughly $450 million to break even, a target now far out of reach.
Does James Gunn’s Reaction Mean Supergirl’s Poor Performance Put the DCU in Trouble?
Gunn’s replies function as a marketing channel the DCU gets for free, one that turns fan nitpicks into news cycles and keeps the brand warm between releases. Choosing to shut that channel down during the studio’s worst week suggests Gunn, or the people advising him, decided engagement currently has no upside. There is no clever reply to numbers this bad, and keeping mute until the waters calm might be the best course of action.
What makes Supergirl’s performance problematic is the timing. Paramount’s pending takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery means new owners will soon judge every division, and DC Studios just gave them a nine-figure loss as its most recent piece of evidence.
There are good reasons to calm down, though. Supergirl is the first DCU film Gunn neither wrote nor directed, and last year’s Superman, which he did both for, earned $618 million worldwide. The studio’s financial exposure also drops sharply from here. Clayface reaches theaters on October 23 with a budget of around $40 million, Lanterns debuts on HBO Max on August 16 with no box office to lose, and Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel Gunn is directing for July 9, 2027, is the safest bet on the entire slate. Alcock returns in that film too, proof the studio is not burying its Girl of Steel over one bad month.
And in fairness, Gunn’s co-CEO Peter Safran recently addressed Supergirl‘s performance in a quote to Entertainment Weekly, stating that the setback was not going to discourage them just yet:
“Obviously, you saw it this weekend, not everything’s gonna work, but we don’t judge the success of our 10-year plan based on any individual project along the way.”
So the DCU is not in trouble yet. It is on notice, which is different, and the difference will be settled by whether Clayface and Man of Tomorrow connect with audiences. One flop has never killed a cinematic universe, and nothing about this one changes the projects already finished or filming. The best way to quell fears of the DCU failing is for the next couple of films to make money.
