SUPERMAN’s Profits Reportedly Triple MAN OF STEEL's
James Gunn’s Superman may not have outpaced Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel at the worldwide box office once inflation is factored in, but when it comes to actual profits, Gunn’s take on the Last Son of Krypton seems to have pulled ahead in a big way.
According to Variety, Superman has generated around $125 million in profit for Warner Bros., while Deadline reported back in 2014 that Snyder’s Man of Steel ultimately brought in just $42.7 million. These numbers haven’t been confirmed by the studio, but they suggest that Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe is off to a much stronger start financially.
Warner Bros. is already enjoying a landmark year at the box office. With hits like A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, F1: The Movie, Superman, and Weapons, the studio has been stacking win after win.
Then came The Conjuring: Last Rites, which broke horror records with an $83 million domestic opening and $187 million globally. Warner Bros. has now made history with seven consecutive films debuting above $40 million.
Still, when it comes to Hollywood accounting, the waters get murky. Studios only keep about half of theatrical grosses, less from international markets, and marketing costs are rarely included in reported budgets. This makes it tough to know what’s really profitable, since bloated production and marketing costs often eat into earnings.
That’s why the Superman versus Man of Steel comparison is so interesting. Snyder’s 2013 film launched the DCEU with Henry Cavill as Clark Kent, grossing $668 million worldwide on a massive $225 million budget.
Adjusted for inflation, its $116.9 million opening weekend would be $160.5 million today, and its final box office haul of $670.1 million would jump to $924.55 million. By those numbers, Snyder’s film looks like the bigger success.
But Gunn’s Superman, which opened on July 11, 2025, with a $125 million debut and a $614 million global finish, was ultimately more profitable. Variety’s estimate points to the film needing about $500 million to break even, and since it cleared that threshold while still pulling in digital sales, the profit math checks out.
Meanwhile, Deadline’s breakdown of Man of Steel’s costs revealed that the budget ballooned beyond the reported $225 million thanks to backend deals and payouts to producers Christopher Nolan and Jon Peters, stars like Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, and Amy Adams, plus Snyder himself and DC Comics. With those additional costs, the profit margin shrank significantly despite the larger box office.
Studios often shuffle money between divisions or inflate expenses to minimize net profits, which can make official profit numbers almost impossible to pin down. As history has shown, even blockbuster hits like Batman were reported as “unprofitable” thanks to backroom accounting tricks.
For now, though, Gunn’s Superman is being positioned as a big win. The film may not have pulled in quite as much as Snyder’s in raw dollars once inflation is accounted for, but it seems to have delivered a stronger financial foundation for Warner Bros. and the new DC Universe.
If these profit reports hold true, the Man of Tomorrow has given Gunn and DC Studios the fresh start they were hoping for.