Supergirl was released last week, and it's already sitting squarely in "box office flop" territory. It didn't underperform or fall short of expectations. It crashed and burned—reaching $150 million worldwide by the end of its run will be easier said than done—and serves as an early black eye for the new DCU.
That's the reality, and, unfortunately, so is the fact that it's just not a very good movie.
You can blame marketing, so-called "superhero fatigue," the release date, or a long list of creative blunders, but none of them changes the fact that audiences didn't embrace what James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios delivered this past weekend.
As an adaptation of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, it misses the mark in more ways than it's possible to count. For starters, Kara and Ruthye's journey together lacks the emotional weight that made the comic so powerful, Krem is stripped of, well, his entire personality, and the story's core message about revenge becomes muddled by a script that Gunn somehow hailed as "incredible."
The fact that the comic's gorgeous, colourful visuals were replaced by fifty shades of brown is, honestly, also hard to forgive.
Love or hate Rotten Tomatoes, and care or don't about box office takings, the fact is that while those are undeniably important in today's landscape, movies aren't political parties. They're not football teams. You don't have to fall in line with whatever the dominant narrative happens to be.
The criticism is deserved, but Supergirl falling short doesn't mean you're wrong to love it. No critic should get to tell you otherwise. No YouTuber has the right to change your mind. No angry rant on X or Reddit deserves space in your head rent-free. Heck, even the comments and articles on this very site shouldn't sway you. Your experience is your own.
We've all got movies that most people think are terrible, but we'd happily watch again in a heartbeat. Spider-Man 3, Eternals, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad...just a handful of examples, all of which have their fair share of fans and detractors in equal measure. Regardless of the genre, cinema would be awfully boring if everyone shared the same opinions.
Taste is subjective, and that's why one person's masterpiece is another's biggest disappointment. I've had my fair share of flak for loving movies that people didn't and hating some blockbusters people quickly went to bat for (I've still not quite recovered from that Godzilla vs. Kong comments section...). Ultimately, whether you have bad reviews and a lack of ticket sales to back you up—or vice versa—no one is necessarily "right."
I've mentioned Supergirl's shortcomings, but it's not as if it's all bad. Milly Alcock is terrific, elevating material that, honestly, is poor enough to derail her career at times. As the DCU continues, she's absolutely someone worth keeping around, and that's thankfully going to be the case in next year's Man of Tomorrow.
Some emotional beats land, and at least one or two action scenes hit the mark. As someone who didn't rate the movie highly, it's hard to find too much to praise, but for certain viewers, the positives outweighed the negatives, and that's completely fine.
Personal enjoyment and objective quality are two very different things, even when there is an overlap. You can love Supergirl while acknowledging its flaws. You can have a fantastic time watching it while admitting that it failed to resonate with most moviegoers. You can even call it one of your favourite DC movies while admitting the criticism isn't coming from nowhere.
Likewise, defending every creative decision simply because it's a DC movie helps nobody. Studios don't improve when fans pretend every release is a masterpiece. Constructive criticism matters, and if the majority of fans felt this adaptation watered down what made Woman of Tomorrow special, DC Studios needs to listen; pointing out flaws like that is not "toxic" (insulting someone's appearance, however, is).
The commercial failure matters, and while box office results aren't everything in this streaming age, they play a role in shaping the future, determining which characters return, what stories get told, and how much confidence studios have in a franchise moving forward.
Supergirl failing isn't just bad news for one movie; it's a problem for the DCU as a whole. Still, Marvel has stumbled before, and DC has rarely fired on all cylinders. Franchises recover when they learn the right lessons, make better movies, and rebuild trust with fans. The DCU can absolutely bounce back from this, but only if Gunn and Safran take responsibility and realise that they got it wrong this time.
So, yes, Supergirl is a disappointing movie and a box office catastrophe. And yet, you're allowed to absolutely love it.
Don't let critics shame you into changing your opinion. Don't let social media convince you that your enjoyment is somehow invalid because the movie flopped. Don't feel obligated to defend every flaw, either, and for those who did hate Supergirl, let them hate it. They're just as entitled to feel angry or disappointed by the experience they had in theaters. At the end of the day, like what you like and be proud of it. That's part of being a fan.