James Gunn Thinks ‘Anti-American Sentiment’ Is Hurting ‘Superman’ Abroad

James Gunn has a brand new Superman movie out—maybe you’ve heard of it? The DC hero’s newest cinematic journey, the primary underneath DC Studios’ Gunn-led period, is a box-office hit and already has followers dreaming of sequels and spin-offs. However one notable quirk of these ticket gross sales is that Superman is doing higher domestically than it’s internationally, regardless of its seemingly broad enchantment as a Hollywood superhero film.

Earlier this week, Variety reported that whereas Superman‘s numbers are spectacular, incomes over $400 million to this point, “turnout stays softer than anticipated on the worldwide field workplace.” The commerce famous Warner Bros. and DC are relying on “outsized world enchantment” to launch this new period of DC media. Naturally, Gunn himself is on the nexus of all this, and he was requested about it in a latest Rolling Stone interview.

“We’re positively performing higher domestically than we’re internationally, however internationally can be rising and having actually good weekday numbers in the identical means we’re. So clearly the phrase of mouth may be very constructive each right here and all over the place else. Which is the factor that we wanted to do probably the most. On the identical time, there are specific international locations wherein it’s actually performing properly. Brazil and the U.Okay.,” Gunn informed the journal.

And, what’s extra, he has some ideas about why audiences abroad won’t be dashing out to see his film in the meanwhile.

“Superman just isn’t a recognized commodity in some locations. He isn’t a giant recognized superhero in some locations like Batman is. That impacts issues. And it additionally impacts issues that we now have a specific amount of anti-American sentiment all over the world proper now. It isn’t actually serving to us,” Gunn mentioned. “So I feel it’s only a matter of letting one thing develop. However once more, for us, every thing’s been a complete win. Having the film come out and be one thing that has been embraced by folks all over the place—that is simply the seed of the tree that Peter [Safran, co-head of DC Studios] and I’ve been watering for the previous three years. So to have the ability to have it begin off so positively has been extremely overwhelming.”

American popular culture being overshadowed by American politics—that sounds about proper given the current climate of things. Maybe the tide can have turned forward of Supergirl‘s launch in June 2026?

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