Superman Narrowly Edges out Another 2025 Blockbuster to Top Box Office Earnings

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In my perspective as a fan, Superman proves he’s swifter than any bullet or Formula One car out there. This year, Superman’s movie surpassed the $600 million mark worldwide, making it the first comic book film to do so and leaving Brad Pitt’s F1 movie behind in a close race over the weekend. Interestingly enough, Netflix claimed the top spot with their KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along Event, generating an estimated $18 million from 1,700 theaters. Superman and F1 both marked impressive milestones, achieving such success after seven and nine weeks in theaters, respectively.

Over the weekend, James Gunn’s Superman earned an additional $3.43 million, raising its total domestic earnings to $346.9 million and global earnings to $604.4 million. Meanwhile, Joseph Kosinski’s F1 accumulated another $1.8 million, pushing its domestic box office earnings to $185.9 million and surpassing the global total of $603.4 million.

In terms of domestic box office earnings, Superman managed to rake in $347 million compared to Formula One’s $186 million. However, Formula One saw significant success overseas with a gross of $417.5 million, which far outpaced Superman’s $257.5 million. This puts the sports-racing drama among Brad Pitt’s highest-earning films ever, as it surpassed the global earnings of his previous record holder, World War Z, which made a total of $531.8 million worldwide in 2013. Interestingly, Paramount Skydance has since announced plans for a sequel to World War Z.

Despite being released digitally, both films surpassed the $600 million global milestone. “Superman” debuted on Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) platforms on August 15, followed by “F1” a week later. However, they faced competition from new releases like “Weapons” ($15.6 million), “Freakier Friday” ($9.2 million), and “The Bad Guys 2” ($5.1 million) which took away some of their theater screens.

First Steps” ranked fourth during its fifth weekend, earning a decline of about 35% with a gross of $5.9 million. Worldwide, the earnings of Fantastic Four have reached approximately $478.7 million and are closing in on matching Superman’s foreign box office revenue of $257.2 million in the domestic market.

Globally, the animated film Ne Zha 2 from China holds the title of the highest-grossing movie this year with a whopping $2.28 billion in earnings. Meanwhile, Disney’s live-action version of Lilo & Stitch has managed to surpass the $1 billion mark, making it the only Hollywood film to do so. Warner Bros.’ Minecraft movie comes in third place with approximately $955 million globally, followed by Jurassic World Rebirth ($844 million), How to Train Your Dragon ($626 million), Superman at No. 6 with $604.4 million, and F1 close behind with $603.4 million.

According to Gunn, who’s the writer-director of Superman and co-head of DC Studios, our performance domestically is stronger compared to internationally. However, internationally, we’re also seeing a significant improvement with strong weekday figures. This suggests that word-of-mouth about us is positive worldwide, which was crucial for us. Interestingly, our performances are particularly impressive in certain countries like Brazil and the UK.

As I explained, Superman isn’t as globally recognized as other superheroes like Batman. This lack of recognition is amplified by the current anti-American sentiments worldwide. However, this setback seems temporary because the movie’s reception has been outstanding everywhere. For me and Peter [Safran], it feels like we’ve been nurturing a seed for the past three years, and seeing this positive response is nothing short of overwhelming. The success of the film has exceeded our expectations.

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2025-08-24 22:15