"Superman" Takes Off! (Or Soars, Or Whatever)
But the Man of Steel is no match for dinosaurs
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE FOR WEEK ENDING JULY 13, 2025
(Courtesy of Warner Bros. Studios)
Below you'll find:
*The top grossing movies worldwide during the last seven days
*My analysis of the week’s box office
*A list of box office winners for 2025
*Notes on each film, especially international movies unfamiliar to most
* Boilerplate on how I get my numbers, decide box office winners, etc.
– Michael Giltz
mgiltz@pipeline.com
www.michaelgiltz.com
www.popsurfing.com
(Artwork by Craig Baxter; all rights reserved ©2025)
BOX OFFICE FOR THE LAST SEVEN DAYS
Superman–$220m worldwide debut
Jurassic World Rebirth–$207m / $530m ww total
F1–$99m / $393m ww total
How To Train Your Dragon–$44m /$561m ww total
Lilo & Stitch (2025)–$21m / $994m ww total
Elio–$20m / $117m ww total
Malice (China)–$15m / $26m ww total
28 Years Later–$12m / $138m ww total
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (Japan)–$10m / $151m ww total
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning–$8m / $584m ww total
Curious Tales Of a Temple aka Strange Tales: Lanruo Temple (China)–$6m ww debut
M3GAN 2.0–$5m / $36m ww total
Materialists–$4m / $50m ww total
Sitaare Zameen Par aka Stars on the Ground (India/Hindi)–$4m / $28m ww total
Noise (Korea)–$3m / $8m ww total
Karate Kid: Legends–$2m / $105m ww total
Crayon Shin-Chan: The Storm Called–The Adult Empire Strikes Back (Japan)–$2m / $18m ww total
The Phoenician Scheme–$1m / $37m ww total
Kuberaa (India/Telugu)–$1m /$16m ww total
The Life Of Chuck–$1m / $10m ww total
Made in Yiwu 3 (China)–$1m / $7m ww total
NOTE: Ballerina–The reported numbers on this film yo-yo’d in the past two weeks. Now everyone has settled on $131m worldwide but–unfortunately for a pretty fun movie–it’s still a commercial disappointment.
Go here to see the complete chart for this week and every week of 2025.
Bold: movies that have or likely will triple their reported budgets.
ANALYSIS
Most of the time, movies don’t compete with each other. Unless you’re opening two bio-pics about Abraham Lincoln in the same week or two new versions of Dracula right before Halloween, films are competing only with themselves. How much did it cost to make and how much did it gross?
But if you WERE going to compare movies, Jurassic World Rebirth cold-cocked Superman on its opening. This fact is even more obvious when you include the grosses of the entire week, rather than comparing the four day total of Superman (which opened on Thursday in North America, its biggest market) versus just the Friday-Sunday grosses for Jurassic Park Rebirth.
If you look at only the worldwide grosses for the “weekend” (that is, four days for Superman and just three days for JWR) than Superman is the clear winner. It grossed $217m compared to JWR’s $108m ww, more than double. If you look at just North America and those “weekend” grosses, Superman made $122m and JWR a measly $40m, tripling the take of the dinos. A thrashing!
But on my chart, you see the startling fact that Jurassic World Rebirth almost beat Superman’s grosses. Supe made $217m worldwide, while Jurassic World Rebirth made $207m. JWR is doing much better internationally and Superman…is not. That’s not good for Warner Bros.
In China, the world’s second biggest market (but less and less important for Hollywood), the dinosaurs remained on top while Superman lagged behind. By Sunday, JWR was still #1 for the day while Superman dropped to #6. Yikes. JWR will soon be the biggest Hollywood hit of the year in the Middle Kingdom.
I’m not playing favorites. I actually like Superman better, though neither film will be on my best of the year list. How you wanna slice the numbers? It’s a strong opening for the character, which never had the box office pull of Batman. It’s another win for Warner Bros. marketing (on top of Sinners and A Minecraft Movie). But it’s not great. Maybe audiences will surprise us and it will draw folks in for weeks to come. The nostalgia factor for adults who grew up on Christopher Reeve and the classic 1978 version might prove a draw. Still, I think Superman will get to $600m or so (just enough to be a hit), but JWR laps it and hits $1 billion.
Also, I still can’t call F1 a winner from box office alone. That’s gonna take another few weeks. But I do know Apple is smart for releasing it theatrically. They’ve got a movie with the aura of a winner as well as strong reviews from critics and audiences. No doubt, the massive worldwide marketing push has paid for itself with $400m in the till and counting. So everything they’re making now is gravy, meaning the movie itself is both more valuable and cheaper and cheaper as the money rolls in. That’s what a proper theatrical release (and window!) can do for a movie. Are you listening, Netflix?
Finally, you come here for news about the worldwide box office. Here’s a story you haven’t heard anywhere else yet.
In Japan, the historical drama Kokuhô aka National Treasure is proving a runaway word of mouth smash. Set in the post-war era, it’s a three hour epic about the son of a yakuza. When his father is murdered by rivals, the boy is raised by a kabuki actor and trained in the profession, facing off against a rival actor born into the business. The lead Ryo Yoshizawa spent a year and a half under the tutelage of a kabuki star to prepare for the role. (Yoshizawa also stars in the new film Babaan Babaan Ban Vampire, so he had two movies in the Top 10 of Japan last week.)
I get similar vibes to China’s Farewell My Concubine when watching the trailer. Despite playing at Directors Fortnight at Cannes, I can’t find any substantial reviews of this movie. But audiences clearly love it. It opened on June 6 and ranked #3. The next week? It hit #2. The week after that? It hit #1 and has stayed there ever since. In money, it opened with US $2m, then leaped to US $6m in its second week, then grew again its third week to US $8m and and then did it again with another US $8m. As of last week, Kokuhô has made $31m and counting. No North American release date yet, but you can be sure it will be coming. Remember, you heard about it here first!
And how about some updates?
I first talked about the stealth success of The Salt Path in my June 22 column. Just as this quiet Gillian Anderson drama was signing a deal for release in North America, it sparked controversy when a UK news story in the Observer suggested the best-selling memoir it’s based on was wildly distorted.
I’ve shone a spotlight (like many others) on China’s animated smash Ne Zha 2, the biggest grossing animated film of all time and one of only seven films in history to gross more than $2 billion at the box office. Now it’s getting an English-language dub (with Michelle Yeoh toplining) and a new release in North America on August 22. The distributor? The hip A-24, for added cachet.
Finally, I told you about the New Zealand drama Tinā in my column of May 25. This is the inspiring story of a woman who was devastated by personal loss after the Christchurch earthquake of 2011 but found purpose again as a teacher. It’s hitting theaters in North America on August 25 and I imagine will be NZ’s Oscar entry next year.
Opening this week: I Know What You Did Last Summer and Smurfs and Eddington. Literally something for everyone!
2025 HIT FILMS
Here's a list of all the hit films making money at the box office in 2025. This week, I’m not adding any new films to the list, but I’m rooting for F1, Superman and 28 Years Later to get there soon.
Big Budget ($100mb+)
Detective Chinatown 1900 (China) ($125mb est)
How To Train Your Dragon ($150mb)
Jurassic World Rebirth ($180mb)
Lilo & Stitch ($100mb)
A Minecraft Movie ($150mb)
Mid-sized budget ($21mb-$99mb)
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (UK) ($50mb)
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (Japan) (anime franchise)
Dog Man ($40mb)
Final Destination Bloodlines ($50mb)
Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants (China) ($30mb)
Ne Zha 2 (China) ($80mb)
Nosferatu ($50mb)
Sinners ($90mb-$100mb)
Small Budget ($20mb or less)
Attack On Titan The Movie: The Last Attack (Japan) (no reported budget)
Babygirl ($20mb)
Batya 2: Ded (Russia) (No reported budget; but doubled gross of Batya)
Becoming Led Zeppelin (>$2mb)
Big World (China) (no reported budget)
Boonie Bears: Future Reborn (China) ($40mb)
The Brutalist ($10mb)
Chhaava (India/Hindu) ($15mb)
The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1, 2 and 3 (TV series episodes; no reported budget)
Clown in a Cornfield (>$1mb)
Companion ($10mb)
Conclave ($20mb)
Doraemon: Nobita's Art World Tales (Japan)
Dragon (India/Tamil) ($4mb)
Drop ($11mb)
The Dumpling Queen (China/Hong Kong) (No reported budget)
Friendship ($5mb)
I'm Still Here (Brazil) ($2mb)
The King of Kings (Korea) ($15mb)
Materialists ($20mb)
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX-Beginning (Japan) (epi from tv anime series)
The Monkey ($11mb)
One of Them Days ($14mb)
Pink Floyd at Pompeii–MCMLXXII (no reported budget)
Presence ($2mb)
Sitaare Zameen Par aka Stars on the Ground (India/Hindi) ($10mb)
Thudarum aka To Be Continued (India/Malayalam)
Until Dawn ($15mb)
NOTES
mb = a film's budget in millions of US dollars; ww = worldwide
Superman–$225mb for this reboot of Superman and the entire DC film franchise, courtesy of comic book geek/writer-director James Gunn. The character does not have the box office punch of Batman (almost no one has the box office punch of Batman, by the way). But all he has to do is launch a new 10 year arc called Gods and Monsters, capture the best of Marvel but at the same time distinguish himself from Marvel and not have every critic carp that it falls below the high water mark of 1978’s Superman, the gold standard of superhero movies. That’s all! Oh, and making $600m ww sure would be nice too.
Jurassic World Rebirth–$180mb (which surely is on the low end of the truth). The last three films in the franchise each grossed at least $1 billion worldwide. Despite this being a reboot and an all-new cast, Jurassic World Rebirth should do the same. It’s no surprise star Scarlett Johansson anchors the film admirably. But Jonathan Bailey of Wicked is very good too, adding a sexy charisma to his nerdy scientist blessed with Indiana Jones vibes.
F1–A reported $200mb (on up) for the Brad Pitt racing drama. Money well spent by Apple? Yes, but only because they released it theatrically.
How To Train Your Dragon–$150mb-$200mb for this live action remake. The lower estimate would mean it cost less than the 2010 version at $165mb. But live dragons are a lot more expensive to feed than animated ones, so I’m suspicious. Either way, it’s a hit.
Lilo & Stitch (2025)–A reported $100mb for this movie, originally slated for streaming only. Bob Iger gets to look like a genius just for taking the animated Moana TV series and making it a theatrical release instead. Then he makes the same move for Lilo & Stitch, a live action remake of the animated film. Ka-ching. Money in the bank.
Elio–$150mb for Pixar’s latest. A disappointment commercially but it was well reviewed and Disney says it wisely lowered the budget. Elio will find its audience on Disney+.
Malice (China)–No reported budget for this Chinese mystery about a journalist investigating the bizarre double death of a nurse and the young cancer patient she was treating. Was it an accident…or malice?
28 Years Later–A $60mb reported for the zombie flick. But it was shot back-to-back with a sequel and I’m unclear if this is just half the total budget or not, since no budget is available yet for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (Japan)–The 28th film in the Detective Conan/Case Closed Japanese anime series. (Of course there’s a manga.) The series keeps growing and growing, with the 27th entry the highest grossing yet…and this one blowing past that record. Will the U.S. ever catch on to this crime saga?
Mission: Impossible–The Final Reckoning–$300mb-$400mb? That’s a heck of a range. Even if we assume only $300m, this was fated to be a “flop.” Keep in mind it may be on the low end of grosses in the series, but it made just about what you’d expect it to make, given the franchise’s track record. So blame the pandemic (and a panicked response to the last film’s underwhelming box office), not hubris on the part of Tom Cruise.
Curious Tales Of a Temple aka Strange Tales: Lanruo Temple (China)–No reported budget for this Chinese animated film. I’ve also seen it called Strange Tales: Lanruo Temple. It’s based on the classic collection of ghost stories from the 1600s titled Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio by Pu Songling.
M3GAN 2.0–$25mb for the campier sequel to that “creepy doll” movie. They failed to realize the original was already campy without trying. And the new and improved model M3GAN must battle looks too human so all the fun is sucked out of it.
Materialists–$20mb for writer-director Celine Song’s followup to the smash indie hit Past Lives. This one stars Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. Will it get to $60m ww? It sure looks like it.
Sitaare Zameen Par aka Stars on the Ground (India/Hindi)–A reported $10mb for this heartwarming Hindi language remake of the Spanish film Champions. It depicts a disgraced basketball coach who must perform his community service by working with a team of players with disabilities. Lessons are learned. It cost $10mb and opened to $10m, so this should be a winner.
Noise (Korea)–A horror film about a woman with a hearing impediment who is haunted by sounds.
Karate Kid: Legends–$45mb for the latest iteration of the Karate Kid franchise. This time, Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio team up to help a bullied teen find peace and self respect while, of course, kicking butt. Most people would consider this a hit since it’s hitting $110m. But I still stick to the formula of a movie needing to triple its budget. And since they won’t be rushing out another Karate Kid movie anytime soon, that’s proof that I’m right. A disappointment but not a disaster.
Crayon Shin-Chan: The Storm Called–The Adult Empire Strikes Back (Japan)–I assume the film playing in China with a similar title is a reissue of this 2001 Japanese anime, the 22nd in the Crayon Shin-Chan series and widely considered in Asia as one of the best animated films of all time. No, I’d never heard of it either. The film ranks below only movies by Miyazaki in some polls and one scene in particular is compared to the emotional gut-punch opening of Up. My incomplete info extends to the film’s box office gross. Before opening in China for this reissue, I have it at $10m ww, which I think must be a gross underestimate.
The Phoenician Scheme–Wes Anderson’s latest has no reported budget but I’m assuming $25mb akin to the last few. I think it’s a return to form after the minor stumble of Asteroid City, which felt like a parody of Anderson, and The French Dispatch, which was solid but all head and no heart. Here the film has more humanity again and Anderson’s usual winning quirks.
Kuberaa (India/Telugu)–Now this Telugu film (shot simultaneously in Tamil, but essentially from the Telugu film industry) cost $14mb. That’s not much more than Sitaare Zameen Par, is it? Well, actually, it’s 40% more, so I’ll wait a week to see how it holds before naming this movie a winner. It’s a complicated, tense action drama about corruption and street beggars and a man forced to compromise his values. By the way, the title was Kubera, but another film already had that title so they added the extra “a.” Problem solved! (Okay, I waited and it’s a flop, topping out at $16m worldwide.)
The Life Of Chuck–No reported budget for this adaptation of a sentimental Stephen King novella.
Made in Yiwu 3 (China)–A Chinese action film I know little about. But it stars Andy Lau, who used to be the hot young guy and is now the aging veteran. And in the role of hot young guy: Karry Wang.
THE CHART AND HOW IT IS COMPILED
This column is a week by week tracking of box office around the world. I compile it by pulling from every possible source: ComScore, Box Office Mojo, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, charts for countries like China and India and South Korea, individual stories in trade or general interest newspapers, Wikipedia and anyone else trustworthy that is discussing box office.
ComScore Weekly Global Box Office Chart
The weekly charts contain the total gross for every movie in theaters around the world during the last seven days. Most charts compare the three day grosses (Fri-Sun) of current releases (ignoring all the money they made from Monday to Thursday) to the four day grosses of new releases (since most new releases "preview" on Thursday in North America). Sometimes movies open on a Wednesday in North America, which means they "preview" on Tuesday. So why not just add up all the money a movie made in the last seven days, whether it opened on a Tuesday or a Thursday or three weeks earlier?
Plus, I look at worldwide box office, not just North America. Hits appear all over the world, some of them having a big impact in other territories and some flourishing only at home. But they all mint new stars and directors who often go on to helm bigger movies in Hollywood and elsewhere. Plus any studio tentpole film depends on the international market, where they often gross most of their money. So focusing only on North America and ignoring the rest of the world is just as foolish as, say, ignoring North American grosses and insisting you only want to know what a movie made in Oklahoma.
How do I arrive at the total gross for a movie over the last seven days? I take the total worldwide box office we have for a movie, subtract from it the previous week's total worldwide box office...and that's how much it made during the past seven days. QED. Naturally, some territories and movies fall through the cracks, but I am as up to date as I can be, given my dependence on other outlets for the basic info. Also, I keep an ongoing list of box office week by week for 2025 here. It includes more complete charts, info on hits from smaller territories (grosses for many countries lag behind by a week) and updated box office info when more accurate numbers become available.
Which movies make the list for The Hit Films of 2025? My rule of thumb is that movies should gross roughly three times as much as their reported budget (or acquisition price) to be called a hit from theatrical alone. Some people now say a movie need only make 2 1/2 times as much as their budget, but I'm sticking with the traditional formula. Of course, we don't really know a movie's budget or the cost of advertising or any backroom deals. Remember, just because a movie isn't a hit from theatrical alone doesn't mean it’s losing money. Far from it. Many movies are profitable despite not being a hit from theatrical alone. No, we can't dive deep into Hollywood accounting here. But we can spot the really big hits that will change careers, launch franchises and generally pay the bills. It's harder to get a reported budget on international films so I tend to avoid calling them a hit unless I have some info that convinces me they're a winner. Also, I include movies from a previous year if they make the majority of their money in this calendar year. Finally, I identify the country for non-Hollywood movies to celebrate the worldwide movie biz. I indicate the language Indian films were made in to celebrate that country's diverse industry, which is vibrant and includes more than the Hindi-language Bollywood films Westerners knew best.
– Michael Giltz
mgiltz@pipeline.com
www.michaelgiltz.com
www.popsurfing.com
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