Supergirl Opens to $37.1 Million as DC Bakeoff Exposed Creative Rift

Q: With its lowest opening ever, is 'Jackass: Best and Last' a successful farewell for the franchise?

Yes. Despite posting the franchise’s lowest opening, “Jackass: Best and Last” still looks like a successful farewell. Financially, the film is in solid shape. It made $3.8 million on Friday and is projected to earn about $8.5 million through Sunday. That is a weak start by “Jackass” standards, but its reported $10 million production cost means it should recover most or all of its budget almost immediately, with profitability likely once international and ancillary revenue are added. In that sense, the low opening is more a sign of a shrinking theatrical ceiling than a commercial failure. As a send-off, the evidence is stronger. Reviews have been broadly positive, with a 61% Metascore and a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score. Critics have described it as a worthy, emotional encore that balances new stunts with “greatest hits,” while acknowledging that the new material may not match the franchise at its peak. That trade-off appears acceptable for a final chapter built around nostalgia and closure. The context also matters. The film opened against “Toy Story 5” and the debut of “Supergirl,” two much larger studio releases, limiting its upside. Yet it still carved out a place in the top tier of the weekend box office and appears to be delivering what longtime fans wanted: a low-risk, profitable, affectionate final lap for a 25-year franchise. So while it is not a breakout hit, it does qualify as a successful farewell.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Jul 4

$37.1 million in opening-weekend sales left Supergirl below even Joker: Folie a Deux’s $37.6 million start, a disastrous result for a film budgeted at $170 million to $180 million.
Test screenings had signaled trouble for months: scores mostly stayed in the 60s, briefly reached the low 70s, then fell again after DC Studios forced a March bakeoff between Craig Gillespie’s cut and a studio version.
That post-production fight grew out of creative differences between Gillespie and DC chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran, with the studio recutting the climax, bringing in writer Jeremy Slater and editor Fred Raskin, and ultimately choosing its own version.
The flop is an early stress test for DC’s reboot because Supergirl was the first feature in the new slate not written and directed by Gunn, raising questions about whether the studio can expand beyond his direct creative control.
Safran said the miss is only one part of a longer-term DC plan, but the setback sharpens scrutiny on Gunn as he juggles studio leadership with filmmaking while superhero movies lose some of their once-reliable draw.