Here's a new edition of "Actors at the Box Office", which seeks to explore the actors' trajectory at the box office and analyze their hits and bombs. I already talked about a few, and as I promised, it's Bill Murray's turn.

Early Life

With an invitation from his older brother Brian Doyle-Murray, Murray got his start at Chicago's The Second City, an improvisational comedy troupe, studying under Del Close. In 1974, he moved to New York City and was recruited by John Belushi as a featured player on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

1970s: It Just Doesn't Matter!

Murray landed his first television role as a cast member of the ABC variety show Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, but that show was canned after one season in 1976.

Regardless, he quickly found a job when he was hired as a cast member for the second season of NBC's Saturday Night (which would later be retitled Saturday Night Live). He replaced Chevy Chase, who left during the season. Michaels had intended to hire Murray for the initial cast but was unable to because of budget restrictions. Murray had a shaky start, but by the end of the second season, had begun to develop a following, with a sleazy know-it-all persona and characters such as Nick the Lounge Singer that became popular with viewers.

He lasted three seasons as a main cast member, and he is often named as one of the best members in the show's history. And how could we talk about Murray without bringing up that time he fought Chevy Chase backstage and called him "medium talent" right before the latter was supposed to go live. For more details, go to the Chevy Chase's post that was done a few weeks ago.

With this popularity, Murray was courted for new projects. He wanted to stay in line with comedies, and those are the films he started with.

His first starring role was the comedy Meatballs, directed by Ivan Reitman. He played Tripper, a camp counselor and the problems he faces in his camp. The film became one of Canada's highest-grossing films, earning $70 million worldwide. It launched the careers of both Reitman and Murray, showing there were new comedy icons in town.

1980s: Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

The success of Meatballs led to a surge in ratings for Saturday Night Live. Its PG rating allowed popularity with a broader audience, and this resulted in new SNL viewers who were not familiar with what writer Rosie Shuster considered to be the unorthodox style of the first two seasons.

Nevertheless, it was a chaotic experience for Murray. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi left the show, forcing Murray and Garrett Morris to play too many of the male parts in sketches. The exhaustion, along with Lorne Michaels' problems with the network, forced a mass exodus in 1980. Nearly all the writers and cast members, including Murray, left the show.

His new starring role was in the comedy Where the Buffalo Roam, playing author Hunter S. Thompson. During production, Murray and Thompson engaged in a series of dangerous one-upmanship contests. One day at Thompson's Aspen, Colorado home, after many drinks and after much arguing over who could out-Houdini whom, Thompson tied Murray to a chair and threw him into the swimming pool. Murray nearly drowned before Thompson pulled him out. It was all for nothing, given the film fared poorly at the box office.

But he still had another comedy, Caddyshack, starring alongside Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe... and Chevy. While there were some worries about how Chase and Murray would act around one another, after the previously mentioned fight in SNL, the two remained friendly and professional with one another throughout the whole writing and filming. It was a very peaceful production, although the heavy use of cocaine on set was probably another factor. The film earned positive reviews, and made over $60 million worldwide.

Let's go back to Saturday Night Live. The sixth season was, by all measures, a complete failure. The new cast members failed to make an impression, and the sketches weren't working. Things hit rock bottom on February 21, 1981, Charles Rocket threw the F-bomb live by saying, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it!", as he was parodying a Dallas cliffhanger. Ratings sank, and NBC was more than convinced to cancel the show.

Two weeks after that incident, Murray returned to host the March 7 episode. Morale had sunk in the writer's room to the point that some writers implored Bill's brother, writer Brian Doyle-Murray, to not let Bill come on the show because they did not want the ratings to go up and keep the show going longer. Murray, a friend of EP Jean Doumanian, agreed to host as a favor and doing so convinced NBC's head of programming Brandon Tartikoff to keep the show on for another week.

The cold open for the episode revolved around Murray telling the cast that in spite of previous setbacks, "it just doesn't matter", referencing Meatballs. Additionally, Murray jokingly told Rocket to "watch his mouth and clean it up". Writer Pamela Norris said of Murray's appearance "It was like The Truth Teller had arrived." Murray had livened the mood of the cast and crew throughout the week. However, by the end of the episode, Murray had apologized to his old cast members by name for appearing on the episode and when Rocket tried to hug Murray, he rebuffed him.

Murray's episode pulled in some pretty great ratings, and it was much better received than the prior episodes. Subsequently, Tartikoff decided to keep the show, but by making some changes. So in some way, Murray helped the show survive.

In summer 1981, he reteamed with Ivan Reitman on the comedy, Stripes, playing a taxi cab driver who enlists the Army. He co-starred with Harold Ramis (who was not much of a draw), and threatened to walk away from the film if Ramis was not hired. The film was a critical and commercial hit, earning $85 million domestically.

The following year, he had a supporting role in Sydney Pollack's Tootsie. Originally, his character didn't exist, but Elaine May did some rewrites to add him, and Dustin Hoffman himself advocated for Murray to get the role. Tootsie would become a smash hit, earning $241 million worldwide and earning critical acclaim.

In 1984, he starred in The Razor's Edge, which was his first film he wrote. But it was a critical and commercial failure. Murray stated he deluded himself that there would be major interest in the film as a period piece, while the studio wanted to make a modern piece. Afterwards Murray realized his mistake, but said he still would have found the experience worth it even if the film had never been released. He was also on the comedy-drama Nothing Lasts Forever, but that film was never released in theaters nor streaming.

But that same year, he reunited with Reitman and Ramis on a new comedy: Ghostbusters. Originally, Dan Aykroyd wrote the character of Peter Venkman with John Belushi in mind, but Belushi died when he was tweaking the script. He turned to Murray, who agreed to join without an explicit agreement, which is how he often worked. While Aykroyd and Murray often rewrote the script, Murray offered very little input.

Ghostbusters became a sensation, showing incredible legs at the box office. It closed with a gigantic $243 million domestically and $369 million worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing films back then. For a brief period, it was the highest-grossing comedy domestically, until Beverly Hills Cop passed it a few months later. The main cast members each received percentages of the gross profits or net participation, and it is estimated that Murray alone earned between $20–30 million from his share. Murray became one of the most sought stars in the industry.

Other than a small appearance in Little Shop of Horrors, Murray decided to take a break, disappointed over the performance of The Razor's Edge. Over four years, he studied philosophy and history at Sorbonne University, frequented the Cinémathèque in Paris, and spent time with his family in their Hudson River Valley home.

In 1988, he returned to films with the Christmas comedy Scrooged. When he did feel a desire to return to acting, he said the "scripts were just not that good", and he wanted to do Scrooged as he found the idea of making a funny Scrooge appealing. Murray was paid $6 million for his role, a very high figure at the time. Producer Art Linson justified the figure by saying that for each year Murray stayed away from films, his audience draw and therefore fee potentially increased. At the time, Linson said that aside from Eddie Murphy, Murray's was the only other name that could draw $10 million of tickets in the opening three to four days.

Murray did some uncredited rewrites and was concerned with how he should portray the redemption scene, with Glazer telling him to follow the script. Wanting a central acting moment, however, Murray gave an emotional and intense performance, deviating from his marked positions and improvising his speech. Writers Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue thought that Murray was suffering a mental breakdown. After he was finished, the crew applauded Murray, but O'Donoghue remarked "What was that? The Jim Jones hour?" Director Richard Donner turned and punched O'Donoghue in the arm, leaving him bruised for a week.

Scrooged proved to be a critical and commercial success, earning $100 million. Further proving that audiences were missing Murray. Nevertheless, Murray was not fully content with the final version. Murray said that this "could have been a really, really great movie. The script was so good... [Donner] kept telling me to do things louder, louder, louder. I think he was deaf."

He closed the decade by reprising his role as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters II. There were delay problems, and Murray said he wouldn't star unless Columbia met his desired $10 million salary, before settling a minimal salary in exchange for a percentage of the box office profits. Murray was also dismissive of sequels in general, believing they exist only for "greed" or "business" reasons, the latter of which he said should carry a death sentence. He said he returned for the sequel because "working on the first Ghostbusters was the most fun any of us had."

Ghostbusters II opened with $29.5 million, which was a record opening weekend. However, the film fell sharply and never showed great legs like the original. It closed with $112 million domestically, losing half of its audience, and $215 million worldwide. It was a box office success, but Columbia never hid its disappointment with the numbers. It also earned unfavorable reviews, with Murray often highlighted as a weak spot due to his very low energy in the film. Murray said, "We did a sequel and it was sort of rather unsatisfying for me, because the first one to me was... the real thing... They'd written a whole different movie than the one initially discussed. And the special-effects guys got it... There were a few great scenes in it, but it wasn't the same movie." Columbia still wanted a third film with the cast, but Murray simply refused to do it. And as the original cast and crew was all required, they couldn't proceed without him.

Murray had a very strong 80s. So many hits, and very little things that didn't work. He was commanding some very strong numbers.

1990s: I didn't know Dan Aykroyd was in this picture

In 1990, he tried filmmaking by directing Quick Change, which he also starred in. Despite positive reviews, it bombed at the box office. And Murray never bothered to pick up the camera ever again.

He later starred in the comedy What About Bob?, opposite Richard Dreyfuss. Neither Murray nor Dreyfuss got along very well on set, leading to some conflicts in schedule. Director Frank Oz reflected, "They're not supposed to get along. It's not that I was simpatico with Bill, but I leaned more towards the ideas that Bill had. But I am so grateful to Richard for his performance." The film earned positive reviews and was one of the year's highest-grossing comedies.

In 1993, he reteamed with Harold Ramis on the comedy Groundhog Day, playing a cynical television weatherman trapped in a time loop. Coincidentally, the role wasn't written for Murray, and he got the part after Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton and Kevin Kline turned it down. It wasn't a smooth production, as there were conflicts between Murray and Ramis. Ramis was focused on making a romantic comedy, in direct contrast to Murray's desire for a more contemplative film. Murray was also in the middle of a divorce from Margaret Kelly, which ruined his mood on set. He was reportedly miserable throughout filming, showed up late, demonstrated erratic behavior, threw tantrums, and often contradicted Ramis's decisions. Despite the problems, the film was a commercial hit, earning $105 million worldwide and earning critical acclaim, becoming one of the most praised comedies of the decade.

Subsequently, he had a supporting role in the biopic comedy Ed Wood, playing Ed Wood's drag queen friend. Not much of a financial success, as it actually became his least-attended film at that point. He continued with supporting roles in Kingpin and Space Jam, with the latter pulling in some strong numbers. His appearance was present in the script from the beginning, but the filmmakers were unable to book him until filming started; Murray held out until Michael Jordan personally asked him to be in the film. He was only set to appear in the golf scene, but personally requested to be in the final match after being impressed by the rogue cut. But he faced huge failures when he starred in Larger than Life and The Man Who Knew Too Little.

In 1998, he deviated from his formula by taking a supporting role in the erotic thriller Wild Things, playing Matt Dillon's attorney. Despite mixed reviews, it was a modest financial success. He then had a co-lead role in Wes Anderson's Rushmore, which marked the first of a very long collaboration. Murray liked Bottle Rocket and agreed to work for scale, and vouched for Anderson to get access to expensive shots despite his short experience. It was a modest performer, but it earned critical acclaim. It established Murray as a performer for independent productions.

He closed the decade by taking part of Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock, but the film was a critical and commercial failure.

It was a so-so decade, but Murray showed he still had acting chops.

2000s: Any Regrets?

He started the decade with Charlie's Angels, playing John Bosley. Despite mixed reviews, it was a big box office success. But it wasn't quite pleasant to make. Lucy Liu said that Murray was a prick towards her, questioning her acting skills, while Drew Barrymore said he came to the set with a bad mood and director McG claims Murray headbutted him. Murray denied accusations, yet took the time to say "he deserves to die" and proceeded to go into detail on how McG should die. Perhaps that's why he wasn't involved with the 2003 sequel.

In 2001, he played the lead in the live-action scenes of Osmosis Jones. The film earned unfavorable reviews and became one of the year's biggest flops. But he closed on a good note by starring in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, which was a critical and commercial success.

Sofia Coppola was writing a new film, Lost in Translation. She envisioned Murray playing the role of Bob from the beginning, wanting to show off "his more sensitive side" and feeling amused by the image of him dressed in a kimono. Murray had an 800 number for prospective clients interested in casting him, but he had a reputation as a recluse who was difficult to contact, so Coppola had to waste so much time in making contact with him. Despite Murray's agreement, Coppola had to take him at his word, as he did not sign a formal contract. She described this as "nerve-wracking", wondering if he would show up for filming in Tokyo. When he finally arrived, days before filming, she expressed significant relief.

Lost in Translation started small but it had great legs. It became a sleeper hit, earning $118 million worldwide, far above its $4 million budget. The film earned critical acclaim, with Murray earning career-best raves, as many were unfamiliar with his game. He was nominated for many awards, including the Oscar for Best Actor. He was considered a favorite to win, but lost to Sean Penn in Mystic River. Despite this, he states that it is his favorite film in which he has appeared.

In 2004, he voiced Garfield in the live-action/animation hybrid Garfield: The Movie. Despite terrible reviews, it was a box office success. In a Reddit AMA, Murray said he did the film because he mistook the screenplay writer's name, Joel Cohen, for Joel Coen of the Coen brothers. He accepted the role, briefly skimming through the script. However, co-writer Alec Sokolow disputed his claim. He also reteamed with Wes Anderson in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, this time as the lead star. But unlike Anderson's prior films, reviews were very mixed and flopped at the box office. Although it earned a cult following.

He worked with Jim Jarmusch on Broken Flowers. It earned positive reviews and was a surprise success at the box office. He also reprised his role as Garfield in the 2006 sequel, which made considerably less money than the original.

He closed the decade with more supporting roles, including City of Ember, The Limits of Control and Fantastic Mr. Fox. None financially successful, but the latter earned critical acclaim.

And of course, how could we miss his appearance in Zombieland, where he played himself. But the guest role was originally written for Patrick Swayze, as a zombified, dancing character, including references to highlights of Swayze's career, even including a recreation of the potter's wheel scene from Ghost. However, Swayze was battling pancreatic cancer at the time and was too sick to make it to set. An unidentified actor was cast in the part, but he dropped out a week before filming, and Harrelson made a few calls and was able to get Murray to play the part instead. According to Harrelson, most of the scene was improvised.

In this decade, he didn't have as much strength in starring roles like he did in the prior century. But he was yet starring in some of his most acclaimed performances.

2010s: Trying New Things

By this point, Murray didn't prioritize blockbusters. He was accepting offers to appear in indie productions. Not all of them paid off, but it helped establish Murray as a versatile star.

He continued his collaborations with Wes Anderson, starring in Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs. Hotel, in particular, was a surprise hit, earning $174 million worldwide, more than any other title from Anderson.

Of course, some were misfires. That included The Monuments Men, which fell short of expectations. And Aloha is best left unsaid. And somehow Rock the Kasbah was worse.

In 2016, he voiced Baloo in the live-action remake of The Jungle Book. Jon Favreau had also always wanted to work with Murray, having been a huge fan of his work, though he was aware of how hard it is to contact him. Fortunately for Favreau, he was able to get a hold of Murray, and he agreed to come on board, with Favreau going on to comment that "once he came aboard, he was incredibly passionate. He has a very high standard." Murray said he "couldn't say no" to the role, and was excited about the project. It ended up becoming his highest-grossing film, earning a massive $967 million worldwide.

That same year, he returned to the Ghostbusters franchise, cameoing in the reboot. He said his decision to participate in the film was because of his friendships with McCarthy and McKinnon, and he felt it was important to support their project. But the film was a huge financial failure, ruining any plans of a sequel.

To close the decade, he returned to cameo in Zombieland: Double Tap, albeit he was just featured in the mid-credits scene.

A hit-and-miss decade, but still a lot of great work.

2020s: Grown, But Not Really Growing

In 2020, he reteamed with Sofia Coppola on the film On the Rocks. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was dumped on Apple TV+.

He continued working with Wes Anderson in The French Dispatch and The Phoenician Scheme. None big at the box office, but Anderson is pretty much the last person who will be affected by that.

In 2021, he reprised his role as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a direct follow-up to the first two films. It earned generally favorable reviews and was a modest performer at the box office, indicating there was still some life to the franchise.

You know, it's been a while since we've heard of Murray causing trouble on set. Leave it up to him to change that.

In 2022, he starred in Aziz Ansari's directorial debut Being Mortal, starring alongside Ansari, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer. 3 weeks into filming, Searchlight suspended production after investigating a complaint filed against Murray for "inappropriate behavior" a week prior. Murray made a statement, "I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn't taken that way. The company, the movie studio, wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it, and so they stopped the production. But as of now, we're talking and we're trying to make peace with each other." In October of that year, reports emerged that Murray had allegedly straddled a "much younger" female production assistant and while both masked, kissed her on the mouth, causing her to file an official complaint. Filming never resumed, and Ansari chose to focus on Good Fortune as his next film.

You'd think someone like Murray would avoid blockbuster franchises. But he surprised everyone by joining Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Murray explained he joined the project as he liked Reed and his work on Bring It On, despite not being interested in superhero films. But the film performed below expectations, and earned unfavorable reviews.

In 2024, he returned as Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. This time, his appearance was more plastered over marketing. But the film made less money than Afterlife despite opening in better conditions, becoming the lowest-grossing Ghostbusters title, and also earned unfavorable reviews. The future of the franchise is uncertain now.

HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS

He has starred in 64 released films, but only 56 have reported box office numbers. Across those 64 films, he has made $5,434,138,633 worldwide. That's $84,908,416 per film.

ADJUSTED DOMESTIC GROSSES

The Verdict

Murray quickly established himself as a comedy sensation. He had the difficult task in maintaining Saturday Night Live afloat after Chevy Chase left, but he managed to pull it off. All while his first starring role, Meatballs, quickly became a box office hit. He wasn't a one-trick pony, as he found more comedy hits like Caddyshack, Stripes and obviously Ghostbusters.

He was on demand, and yet he couldn't care less about worrying about the offers drying up. Just look at the 4-year hiatus after Ghostbusters, he simply wanted to enjoy a peaceful life, until Scrooged finally brings him back. He maintained that momentum to the 90s. But it was an essential decade as Murray decided to make a change; he wouldn't headline big comedies, and would instead take part of smaller productions. That's how he met Wes Anderson, one of his most recurring collaborators.

Buoyed by this, Murray finds success in the indie circles, while also still working on major productions. Then he makes something very different with Lost in Translation, and his Oscar loss is often singled out as one of the biggest mistakes in the Academy. From then on, he just stars in what he considers fun. Other times... well a paycheck's a paycheck.

Now, you read the write-up and will think "but isn't this guy a prick?" Yes, he is. A big prick. He was a prick back in the 70s, and was a prick just a few years ago with the whole Being Mortal mess. And if you read all this and are disappointed in the guy... just want to note that there's more anecdotes I couldn't name here because of character limits. Either because he shows up late, because they can't meet his strict demands, or because his mood swings kick in. And even if you were a friend of his (like Harold Ramis), he'd still be a troublemaker. But it's not like he has lost job for it; Wes Anderson said he considers him part of his family and will continue working with him, while Scarlett Johansson later confessed that she felt Murray's experiences during COVID-19 and the misconduct allegation have both "changed" and "humbled him" and that "[they] have led up to him being held accountable for that kind of behavior".

As we're in the SNL discussion, let's address one thing: Murray and Chevy Chase had a... let's not call it feud, let's call it complicated relationship. They aren't exactly friends, and they had a well-documented fight in SNL in 1978. A fight in which Murray called him "medium talent", a savage insult that shook Chase's confidence. Now, that wasn't exclusive to Chase. Murray told the exact same thing to Martin Mull, so he probably liked calling "medium talent" to a lot of people.

These two represented important periods of SNL and both had very lengthy film careers. But if we compare popularity and success, Murray by far eclipses Chase. If Chase had a comedy hit, Murray had 3. How did Murray find more success? Especially when both are well known for being pricks. Well, Murray had better scripts and ideas; Ghostbusters alone is the end of the argument. But perhaps the biggest thing that let him last this long: Murray was comfortable in stepping out of his comfort zone. While Chase was often dismissed for always playing the same character in everything, Murray worked to differentiate his performances, even in comedies. Stripes and Ghostbusters are done by the same director and two leads, but he isn't phoning it in nor repeating the same beats. And then you find him working with interesting directors like Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola and Jim Jarmusch. Can you see Chevy Chase pulling off Lost in Translation? I don't think so.

Murray is a complicated case. But when it comes to comedy icons, few compare to his talents.

Hope you liked this edition. You can find this and more in the wiki for this section.

The next actor will be Michael Caine. Quite extensive, with a lot of gems and duds.

I asked you to choose who else should be in the run, and the comment with the most upvotes would be chosen. Well, we'll later talk about... Brandon Lee. A tragic story.

This is the schedule for the following four:

Who should be next after Lee? That's up to you.

REMINDER: If you want to make a suggestion for the next actor, you must make a 150-character comment about the actor we're discussing right now. Failure to do so will result in ignoring the suggestion. If you use a quote from an external source/review to bypass this, your suggestion will be ignored as well. But if you leave a short comment about the post without naming a future write-up, that's fine.

As June nears the end, Toy Story 5 kept the top spot on its second frame, just like its predecessors did. Even with a rough drop, the film is nearing $600 million through the second week. Jackass also returned one last time for its final installment, Best and Last, but audiences mostly ignored it this weekend.

But this week, the real story is Supergirl. The second installment in the new DC Universe has arrived, and to say it ended in a whimper would be generous. Even with an aggressive marketing push, the film performed worse than anyone expected, posting terrible numbers across the world.

The Top 10 earned a combined $148.4 million this weekend. That's up 19.6% from last year, when F1 posted a pretty great debut to top the box office.

Toy Story 5 kept the top spot with $70.8 million this weekend. That's down a rough 56%, which is steeper than the prior films. But it's a reasonable drop, considering that the opening weekend was boosted by Juneteenth and Father's Day. The fact that it avoided 60% is a sign that word of mouth is very strong, as it posted the biggest second of the year, above The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($68 million).

Through 10 days, Toy Story 5 has posted a strong $298 million domestically, becoming the highest-grossing film of the summer. It has already overtaken the lifetime gross of the second installment, and it's $59.3 million ahead of the fourth film through the same point. Minions is opening this Wednesday and that's going to take a big chunk from its family demographic. Nevertheless, it still has enough gas to hit $500 million domestically.

Debuting in second place, there was Warner Bros./DC's Supergirl, which flopped with an abysmal $37.1 million in 3,602 theaters. That's a massive 71% drop from Superman ($125 million), and it performed considerably worse than other comic book failures like The Marvels ($46.1 million), Morbius ($39 million) and Joker: Folie à Deux ($37.6 million).

Supergirl also joined the very few DC adaptations that failed to open at #1. That includes Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Steel, Catwoman, Constantine, and Jonah Hex. With the exception of Constantine, all of these films were big box office failures.

Projections began at a possible $55 million debut, before being revised to a possible sub $50 million performance. To see it drop all the way to $37 million is wild. Superman was a success, but mostly speaking in the domestic market. It finished with $354 million and audience reception was mostly favorable. Usually that'd indicate the audience could be on board with a spin-off focusing on Supes' cousin. How could it happen?

Perhaps Supergirl was a case of "going high a bit too soon". It's just the second film in the newly rebranded DC Universe, and simply put, Supergirl is not as iconic as Superman in terms of popularity. Yes, she had a very small cameo in Superman, but the audience wasn't still fully on board with the character. The audience wasn't going to buy a ticket just because of a one-minute appearance, they still needed to see if the film looked any good or interesting.

The character has had live-action counterparts, but none were exactly big; the 1984 film is reviled and was a huge disaster, the Smallville version was just regular for one season, the Melissa Benoist version was on a CW series that struggled to hit 1 million viewers on its final seasons, and the Sasha Calle version was on the failed Flash film. That's not a great record, and it's now extending to the current version. It's a character that even if it attracted some fans, it's not a large fanbase.

There's also a case that female-led superhero films have been struggling this decade. Since Captain Marvel made $1 billion, the titles had seen diminishing returns in terms of box office receipts and quality. Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, The Marvels and Madame Web all flopped. All had varying levels of quality (some middling response, others outright terrible), and that was reflected in the box office performance. There's no easy answer here, for there is so many factors at hand.

WB pushed heavily for the film, spending an estimated $120 million in marketing. Well, you can't blame them for lack of trying, but you can blame for never catching your interest. Trailers lacked any hook that could entice viewers; a female version of Supes won't be enough, but the reckless and bold touch didn't intrigue audiences. James Gunn specifically said that this was an adaptation of the Woman of Tomorrow comic, but the comparisons didn't help. The comic earned a strong response for its beautiful artwork and story, and that is not reflected in the film.

From the trailers, there was a severe lack of color, instead presenting the film with a muted yellow and brown palette. And the story tried to differentiate itself from Superman by going the space route, but it drew unfavorable comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy. So the film lacked anything that would prevent that "been there, done that" feeling, and it also lost comic fans who wanted a faithful adaptation of that comic. In this current era, superhero films need to offer new things to stand a chance.

You can also tell that WB got a bit too desperate over the past weeks, as they started to heavily push David Corenswet's small appearance in the marketing campaign. It's one thing to indicate he will appear, but the focus should still be on selling the lead role. It doesn't help that its own title role was also overshadowed by the presence of Jason Momoa as Lobo in the marketing angle.

The release date was also not a wise choice, and that's before including the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the mix. While WB needed a summer blockbuster, having Supergirl released the week after Toy Story 5, the week before Minions & Monsters, 2 weeks before Moana and 3 weeks before The Odyssey was some poor judgment. It's not even a matter of hindsight, it's something that was mentioned with months in advance. Even if Supergirl isn't competing with the same demographic that could watch the animated films, there's still some audience overlap. And we didn't even mention that Spider-Man: Brand New Day would be coming at the end of July. If audiences were going to watch a superhero film, it was always going to be Spidey.

At the same time, there should also be some talk on how much power the DC brand truly has. Since 2020, DC has released 11 live-action projects in theaters and only two films (The Batman and Superman) were successful at the box office. That includes a period where the DCEU released 8 box office flops in a row. That is an abysmal track record, and with Supergirl that now marks 10 failures out of 12. If the MCU is having some troubles at the box office, DC is facing even more obstacles. There's very little good will toward the brand, even with the recent success of Superman.

Finally, there was some hope that the film could still surprise with good reception. After all, James Gunn gloated that the DC Universe would prioritize quality and wouldn't rush a film without a script. Well, those words are gonna come back at him now because Supergirl is currently sitting at a pretty weak 54% on Rotten Tomatoes and 49 on Metacritic. Fumbling the quality on the second film is not ideal for a starting universe.

According to Warner Bros., 67% of the audience was 25 and over. That means that the film struggled to attract Gen Z and Gen Alpha, audiences that have led some over-performers over the past summer. Even though it's a female-led superhero title, 59% of the audience was male. This is something that has plagued other films (with the exception of the first Wonder Woman), and that is unlikely to change.

Yes, a lot of things have gone wrong. But things could get worse. Oh wait, there's even more negative news.

Audiences gave Supergirl a very poor "B–" on CinemaScore, which is worse than any film in the DCEU. That's a full letter below Superman (A–) and it's just slightly better than the 1984 film (C+). It's also the same grade as Superman III, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Punisher: War Zone, Dark Phoenix, and Captain America: Brave New World. As you can tell, that is not good company to be with, and suggests audiences disliked the film.

And it's already being reflected in the box office; Friday accounted for 49.5% of the weekend gross, a very front-loaded number. It saw a steep 41% drop on Saturday, and a 27% drop on Sunday. That indicates that the film's word of mouth is already taking a toll.

The future is not looking bright for Supergirl. With mediocre reviews, poor word of mouth and heavy competition, the film is going to fall off a cliff very quickly. A total around $75 million domestically is likely, but don't be surprised if it drops below that figure. Which means it will have a sub 2x multiplier. Fucking ouch.

If the numbers look bad, just wait till you see the overseas figures.

James Gunn had a lot of pressure last year to deliver with Superman and it seemed like he pulled it off. But now the DC Universe had one of the biggest financial failures of all time, and it was with a character that was supposed to be a key player. So there's even more pressure on Man of Tomorrow to deliver next year (which will also feature Supergirl, but screentime is still up in the air). Yes, Clayface is coming out before that, but it's more stand-alone and cheap that the universe doesn't rely on him. Whatever the case, DC has a lot of problems to face right now.

In third place, Focus Features' Obsession continues its crazy run. It eased just 28%, earning $9.7 million this weekend. For a few days, it was the highest-grossing film of the summer season before Toy Story 5 overtook it. The film has amassed an incredible $233.8 million domestically, and it still has so much gas left.

Debuting in fourth place, Paramount's Jackass: Best and Last opened with an underwhelming $8.4 million in 2,855 theaters. That's the lowest debut in the Jackass franchise, and it's 63% below what the first film did back in 2002 ($22 million).

The Jackass films are fairly cheap, and this was no exception (it cost just $10 million). But even with that, it still feels like the film should've opened higher. After all, the first three films increased in gross, with the third film posting an impressive $50.3 million debut. And the spin-off Bad Grandpa still posted $32 million. Even the prior film, Forever, got to $23 million a few years ago.

The thing is that Jackass' popularity peaked years ago. The third film benefitted from the 3D mania, and it was the last film to feature the whole cast (it was released 8 months before Ryan Dunn's death). While audiences showed up to see the Bad Grandpa spin-off, Forever saw a drop in attendance and that was semi-sold as a finale. Even if Best and Last is selling itself as the real finale, that curiosity faded some time ago.

But most importantly, it's the fact that this is not a fully new film. The film was announced on January 8 and it soon got the June date, which was a very short window between announcement and release. And that's because the film consists of half new content and half clips from prior films, including some unseen footage. People want to buy tickets for new things, not things they already saw. The film also lacked a strong prank hook for the new material in commercials (Steve-O getting a prostate exam from a robot paled in comparison to the beehive scene in Forever), so that limited interest. At the very least, reception remained very positive: 88% on RT, so at least it lived up to its title.

According to Paramount, 69% of the audience was male, and 37% was in the 25-34 demographic. They gave it a pretty good "A–" on CinemaScore, tying with the original as the best in the franchise. Nevertheless, Jackass is not known for holding well, as it targets just fans of the series. Look for Best and Last to finish with around $20 million domestically. Basically, the domestic total will be less than the worst debut in the franchise.

It doesn't look like Disclosure Day will have the legs of other Spielberg titles. It dropped another 53%, earning $8.3 million this weekend. The film has made a middling $94.5 million, and it will hit the $100 million milestone next week. But it's clear it's not holding as well as hoped.

A24's Backrooms eased 40%, grossing $4.3 million. It has amassed $184.1 million, and it was just recently announced that it'll get an extended version with 15 new minutes, which will begin playing this Friday.

Scary Movie dropped 52%, earning $3 million this weekend. The film has now earned $103.5 million, and it's closing with a little below $110 million.

In eighth place, Masters of the Universe continued its freefall. It collapsed another 63%, earning just $2.3 million this week. The film's domestic total stands at an abysmal $62 million, and it's set to finish with less than $70 million.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity cracked the ninth spot with $1.9 million ($2.9 million including Thursday) in 943 theaters.

Rounding out the Top 10 was The Mandalorian and Grogu. It fell another rough 58%, earning $1.7 million this weekend. The film has amassed a weak $175 million so far.

Leviticus dropped 61% on its second weekend, earning $1 million this weekend. Through 10 days, the film has made $5.4 million, and it should finish with around $6.5-$7 million.

Michael saw its biggest drop yet, as it fell 58% and added $902,907. The film has now earned $370.2 million, and it's nearing the end of its run.

The Death of The Death of Robin Hood came this week, as the film collapsed a horrible 79% on its second weekend, posting just $588,666. With weak marketing and poor word of mouth, a drop of this caliber isn't surprising. Through 10 days, the film has earned an abysmal $4.7 million, and it'll close with just $5.5 million domestically.

A24 released Olivia Wilde's Sundance hit The Invite in 7 theaters and it posted some strong numbers. It debuted with $379,104, which translates to a strong $54,158 per-theater average. A24 will expand it moderately next week before hitting wide release on July 10.

OVERSEAS

Toy Story 5 added $89.1 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to a strong $589.2 million after just 2 weeks. The best markets are Mexico ($48M), UK ($37.8M), China ($29.8M), France ($15.7M), Brazil ($12.6M), Australia ($12.6M), Spain ($11.2M), Korea ($10.8M), Argentina ($9M), Colombia ($8.5M), Chile ($6.7M) and Italy ($6.7M). Despite the World Cup affecting grosses, the film is seeing some strong holds across the world. It should safely get to $1 billion without any problem.

Supergirl tanked in America. Turns out you can tank even harder outside America.

Supergirl debuted with a pathetic $25.5 million overseas, for an abysmal $62.6 million worldwide launch. That's below Superman's underwhelming $95 million overseas launch, and it's also worse than The Marvels' $62 million launch. Absolutely horrible numbers all around. Not like it was expected to fare much better overseas, as Superman disappointed in that aspect, but it performed far worse than anyone expected.

It had so-so debuts in the UK ($4.1M), Mexico ($3.4M) and Australia ($2M), and flopped in Brazil ($1.4M), Japan ($1.3M), China ($1M), Indonesia ($931K), South Korea ($885K), Spain ($849K), Italy ($840K), Germany ($830K), and Thailand ($806K). It didn't hit #1 in any country (wow!) and it also opened below Disclosure Day and that's an original IP.

Given the film's $170 million budget and $120 million marketing campaign... it's a gigantic failure. Great legs aren't expected to save this, given that heavy competition will destroy any legs it can have. Supergirl will finish with less than $150 million worldwide, joining Dark Phoenix, Green Lantern, The Marvels and Joker: Folie à Deux as one of the biggest superhero flops of all time. How is this going to affect Gunn's plans? Only time will tell.

Obsession added $13.6 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to an incredible $371 million. It had very strong debuts in Germany ($2.6M), Spain ($1.4M), and Singapore ($772K). $400 million should happen very, very soon.

Backrooms added $11.4 million overseas, reaching $330 million worldwide.

Disclosure Day added $10.4 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to $195 million. The three biggest markets have been the UK ($14.5M), Mexico ($9.5M) and France ($7M), all of which are showing strong legs. Over the next few days, it'll cross the $200 million milestone.

Ahead of its debut this week, Minions & Monsters debuted with $10.3 million overseas in a few select markets. The biggest markets were France ($6.1M), Australia ($2.3M) and Belgium ($755K). Now let's see how it opens when it reaches its biggest markets this week.

Jackass: Best and Last opened with a very poor $1.9 million overseas, for a weak $10.3 million worldwide launch. Not great all, as the UK was the only market to crack $1 million.

With $977 million worldwide, Michael has passed Oppenheimer to become the biggest biopic ever. The path to $1 billion continues.

FILMS THAT ENDED THEIR RUN THIS WEEK

• Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! Amazon MGM's Project Hail Mary has closed with a fantastic $344 million domestically and $683 million worldwide, ending as the fourth biggest film of the year so far. Amazon hasn't had great luck so far at the box office (Masters is currently a gigantic failure), but this proved they can create a megahit with the right ingredients. The film was highly anticipated and buoyed by strong word of mouth, had incredible legs, reaching a 4x multiplier. With some awards buzz on the horizon, this is an all-around success for everyone involved.

THIS WEEKEND

One animated film will take over another animated film.

Universal is launching Minions & Monsters, the third installment in the spin-off series and the seventh installment overall in the Despicable Me franchise. Featuring the voices of Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, and Jeff Bridges, it takes place in 1920, 48 years before the events of the first Minions, and follows the Minions as they aim to make a monster movie of their own in Old Hollywood. The yellow monsters have been very profitable, with the past films earning $1.1 billion and $940 million worldwide, all with very low budgets. Even if it suffers a decline in revenue, the film doesn't have to make much to succeed, given it cost just $85 million. The only concern is the competition is surrounding it.