In the wake of Supergirl's disappointing opening weekend, DC Studios is being tried by the Hollywood trades. Deadline is the latest to weigh in, suggesting the movie will lose as much as $125 million by the end of its box office run.
However, it seems that there's also some very light finger-pointing going on. These websites, while highly reliable, are often fed information to create the narrative a studio or high-ranking Hollywood figure wants.
Unnamed sources essentially fired Gal Gadot from her role as Wonder Woman in the trades after she repeatedly talked about returning for a third movie (that obviously came from DC Studios, despite James Gunn remaining silent on the matter on Threads). Then, there was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson leaking information about ancillaries—and a Hawkman movie—in a bid to make his Black Adam sequel happen.
In this report, it's said, "I'm told the Supergirl adaptation by Hightown actress Ana Nogueira was beloved internally, and considered ready to go. Coming away from testing, DC knew there were hurdles ahead. The response to Supergirl was 'good, not great,' and that just doesn’t fly with any superhero movie today."
The inference is that it wasn't Nogueira's script that was the problem, despite it being torn apart in reviews. That leaves only filmmaker Craig Gillespie, who would arguably make the better scapegoat of the two when the writer has already been signed up for Wonder Woman and Teen Titans movies. That, or Gunn and Peter Safran's tastes leave much to be desired.
Even if the Cruella helmer wasn't up to the task or things went wrong in the edit, Gunn seemingly has the final say and has been named as the decision-maker behind Lobo's role and the divisive final song choice.
When it comes to Supergirl's box office struggles, the trade has largely dismissed the notion that Toy Story 5 and the World Cup are to blame for the DCU movie's struggles.
As if things weren't bad enough, conservative media figure Megyn Kelly has decided to revel in Supergirl's box office woes (via The Wrap).
"'Supergirl' has opened at the movie theater well below expectations, because its star, Millie Alcock, is as loathsome as the girl [Rachel Zegler] who played in 'Snow White,' and seems to appreciate women in exactly the same way as that other gal did, and is receiving similar backlash," she said. "That, plus we’re over the forced-upon-us girlboss era. It’s not authentic, it’s not organic, we’re no longer buying it."
After highlighting Alcock's height—calling the actress "weirdly small"—Kelly went on to say, "So, now that people who like superhero movies are misogynists if they reject the weird short girl with the very strange look as their latest girlboss, and not something like this. So [you] can’t center around a love relationship because that would be offensive and obviously disempowering."
"If you are in a love relationship with a man as a woman, it’s disempowering to your superhero narrative. F that. Virtually every woman on earth who’s straight would love to connect with a man, form a love relationship, and be buoyed up by it, not diminished, which is a Hollywood weird woke message," she concluded.
This comes after Fox News' Jesse Watters declared, "No man will ever see this movie. And most women won’t see it. The ones that do, there’s just not enough of them to make money from the movie, if you know what I mean. But the whole bisexual thing."
"Guys don’t get into that. Maybe that’s cool when you’re 18, but when a girl’s bisexual, we don’t trust her," he continued. "We don’t trust her. And the ones I’ve met are super weird. So to say you’re bisexual, it’s not a turn on. It’s not a turn on."
You don't have to agree with these criticisms (and let's face it, they're pretty weird, if not downright offensive), but both Kelly and Watters have a large audience, and the low opening weekend numbers are the perfect fodder to back up their arguments.
Superman was similarly targeted last year, though the movie's box office and critical success largely put an end to that.
Supergirl is now playing in theaters.