{"id":2467053,"date":"2025-07-26T12:37:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-blamed-for-superman-global-slump-reeves-1978-classic-debunks-the-haters\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T12:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T16:41:13","slug":"trump-blamed-for-superman-global-slump-reeves-1978-classic-debunks-the-haters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-blamed-for-superman-global-slump-reeves-1978-classic-debunks-the-haters\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Blamed for &#8216;Superman&#8217; Global Slump: Reeve&#8217;s 1978 Classic Debunks the Haters"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-blamed-for-superman-global-slump-reeves-1978-classic-debunks-the-haters%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2467053&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the challenges faced by American movies, particularly superhero films, in foreign markets in 2025. It critiques the tendency to blame President Donald Trump and alleged anti-American sentiment for poor international box office performance, using recent examples such as Pixar&#8217;s &#8220;Elio&#8221; and the new James Gunn-directed &#8220;Superman.&#8221; While &#8220;Superman&#8221; performed well domestically, its international earnings lagged, especially in Asia and Europe. Gunn attributes this partly to anti-American feelings abroad, but the article disputes this by comparing the film&#8217;s performance to other American franchises like &#8220;Captain America: Brave New World&#8221; and &#8220;Jurassic World: Rebirth,&#8221; which have done better internationally.<\/p>\n<p>The article suggests that &#8220;Superman&#8221;&#8216;s weaker global showing is more likely due to factors like the character&#8217;s lesser popularity overseas compared to Marvel superheroes, the troubled history of DC Comics adaptations, marketing challenges, and the cast&#8217;s limited international recognition. It also notes that complex cultural references and narrative appeal play a role in a film&#8217;s foreign success. Ultimately, the piece argues that blaming anti-American sentiment or Trump oversimplifies the issue, and other market dynamics and franchise reputations better explain the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/box-office-scream-scares-off-spider-man-with-30-6m-debut\/\" title=\"Box Office: \u2018Scream\u2019 Scares Off \u2018Spider-Man\u2019 with .6M Debut\">current box-office realities<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you&rsquo;re in business and you&rsquo;re not doing as well as you&rsquo;d like in foreign markets in 2025, it doesn&rsquo;t hurt to blame President Donald Trump. After all, you can claim some vague anti-American sentiment or tariff uncertainty or geopolitical blowback or whatever. It&rsquo;s probably not true, but it doesn&rsquo;t hurt to have a fall guy that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-ignore-real-issues-because-they-dont-want-trump-to-win\/\" title=\"Media Ignore Real Issues Because They Don...t Want ... To Win\">media doesn&#038;rsquo<\/a>;t like.<\/p>\n<p>This is especially true if you&rsquo;re in the entertainment industry. Conservatives getting blamed for tanking films is hardly a new phenomenon, particularly this year. Critics complained that <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >anti-woke backlash killed<\/a> the box-office for Pixar&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/report-exposes-just-doomed-disney-historic-flop-film\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elio<\/a>,&rdquo; say. Trump&rsquo;s the head of that hydra, right?<\/p>\n<p>Never mind the fact that when you took out the character&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/elio-pixar-america-ferrera-director-queer-2-1236301860\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">queer-coded<\/a>&rdquo; original persona, as Disney executives reportedly did, there wasn&rsquo;t an actual story left to tell &mdash; which meant there wasn&rsquo;t an actual story to begin with, except for a kid being &ldquo;queer-coded.&rdquo; If anything, Trump saved it from doing worse than it did.<\/p>\n<p>It gets a little bit more complicated when you look at &ldquo;Superman&rdquo; &mdash; the new James Gunn-directed film which has done well enough at the box office, with one slight caveat.<\/p>\n<p>As Hollywood-centric publication <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/superman-box-office-analysis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Wrap<\/a> noted, Superman was &ldquo;off to a stellar start, with one lingering concern.&rdquo; As for the stellar start, it took in $217 million worldwide with $122 domestic in its first weekend, along with an 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and a good A- CinemaScore &mdash; i.e., the audience score, which demonstrates the kind of legs it has &mdash; as well.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadScript(src) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst script=document.createElement(\"script\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.src=src; \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.async=true; \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.body.appendChild(script); \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\tfunction findPreviousParagraph(selector, x) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst targetElement=document.querySelector(selector); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!targetElement) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Target element not found.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Get all <\/p>\n<p> elements in order as they appear in the document \t\t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphs=Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\"p\"));  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the index of the last <\/p>\n<p> before the target element \t\t\t\t\t\tlet targetIndex=paragraphs.findIndex(p=> p.compareDocumentPosition(targetElement) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING);  \t\t\t\t\t\tif (targetIndex===-1 || targetIndex <x) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Not enough paragraphs before the target element.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\treturn paragraphs[targetIndex - x]; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Set up IntersectionObserver \t\t\t\t\tfunction observeElement(element) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!element) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst observer=new IntersectionObserver( \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(entries)=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentries.forEach(entry=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tif (entry.isIntersecting) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(\"Paragraph is now visible:\", entry.target.textContent.trim()); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tloadScript(\"https:\/\/embed.sendtonews.com\/player3\/embedcode.js?fk=s28Az7AY\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t}, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t{ threshold: 0.5 } \/\/ Adjust threshold as needed \t\t\t\t\t\t);  \t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.observe(element); \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the 1st paragraph before #stnvideo and observe it \t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphToObserve=findPreviousParagraph(\"#stnvideo\", 2); \t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>But all was not well:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>  Now for the bad news: &ldquo;Superman&rdquo; did not reach $100 million in overseas grosses, slipping to $95 million internationally as approximately 56% of the film&rsquo;s global grosses came from the U.S. and Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>A poor start in Asia was expected for &ldquo;Superman,&rdquo; grossing $13.3 million combined from China, Japan and South Korea. But aside from the $9.8 million opening in the U.K., numbers were low in Europe. Combined, the film made just $9.6 million from France, Italy and Spain, compared to $15.6 million for the opening weekend of &ldquo;The Batman.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Director James Gunn knew who was to blame: Trump!<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Superman is not a known commodity in some places. He is not a big known superhero in some places like Batman is. That affects things,&rdquo; Gunn said, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/news\/james-gunn-superman-woke-anti-america-box-office-1236465776\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<strong>And it also affects things that we have a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world right now. It isn&rsquo;t really helping us<\/strong>. So I think it&rsquo;s just a matter of letting something grow. But again, for us, everything&rsquo;s been a total win. Having the movie come out and be something that has been embraced by people everywhere &mdash; this is just the seed of the tree that Peter and I have been watering for the past three years. So to be able to have it start off so positively has been incredibly overwhelming.&rdquo; [Emphasis ours]\n<p>That sounds great coming out of his mouth. Here&rsquo;s the problem: There&rsquo;s another superhero movie that came out this year which had a far better domestic-to-worldwide box-office ratio. An American superhero movie. Starring a superhero literally called Captain America in a film titled &ldquo;Captain America: Brave New World.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The domestic gross, as per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/releasegroup\/gr2894942725\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Box Office Mojo<\/a>: $200,500,001. International: $214,601,576.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Superman,&rdquo; meanwhile: $264,641,578 domestic, $173,100,000 international.<\/p>\n<p>But, hey &mdash; maybe people associate Superman more with America than Captain America. After all, who could guess Captain America is American, especially just going by his name? So let&rsquo;s look at the original &ldquo;Superman,&rdquo; released in 1978.<\/p>\n<p>In case you remember how America was perceived in 1978, the answer: not well. We&rsquo;d just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/know-vietnam-war-protest-heart-college-football-controversy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gotten out of Vietnam<\/a> a few years prior in circumstances that were, uh, less than ideal, the foreign policies of both the Nixon\/Ford and Carter administrations were not viewed with unmixed delight in either Europe, Asia, or the rest of the world, and our prestige was at the point where a group of militant students stormed the American embassy in Tehran a year later and would precipitate a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ap-iranians-take-streets-anniversary-us-embassy-takeover-chanting-death-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">444-day hostage crisis<\/a> which would effectively end Carter&rsquo;s presidency and U.S.-Iranian relations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Superman&rdquo; 1978 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/title\/tt0078346\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">box-office total<\/a>: $134,478,449 domestically, $166,000,000 internationally. Those are non-adjusted dollars, but they&rsquo;re pretty much the mirror-image percentage of what &ldquo;Superman&rdquo; 2025 is taking in.<\/p>\n<p>So, what gives? Probably not anti-American sentiment. In fact, another very American property &mdash; the latest &ldquo;Jurassic Park&rdquo; film, &ldquo;Jurassic World: Rebirth&rdquo; &mdash; is dominating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/intl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">international box office<\/a> at present, despite being released a week earlier than &ldquo;Superman.&rdquo; Its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxofficemojo.com\/releasegroup\/gr4002763269\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tally<\/a> has been $288,516,440 domestically, $373,504,423 internationally &mdash; so, again, there goeth that theory.<\/p>\n<p>To a certain extent, Gunn might have hit the nail on the head with his explanation that Superman doesn&rsquo;t carry the same cachet that other superheroes do, particularly Marvel ones, in foreign markets. This is especially true after a long run of troubled adaptations of DC Comics properties.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the stand-alone successes of the Christopher Nolan &ldquo;Dark Knight&rdquo; trilogy &mdash; which had a great deal to do with the fact that Batman is more popular worldwide and Nolan is considered one of the greatest filmmakers working today &mdash; the rest of the universe&rsquo;s stable has done poorly, both financially and critically, at the box office.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to go down the ultimate rabbit hole of how bad things can happen to good intellectual properties, do a search on &ldquo;Snyder cut&rdquo; and just start clicking on hyperlinked articles in what you find. Suffice it to say, the brand&rsquo;s properties have been handled badly, and given that consumers are finally coming back to comic book movies after oversaturation and critical underperformance practically killed the genre, they&rsquo;re more likely to come back to Marvel first, considering those movies have routinely been better handled.<\/p>\n<p>Also, &ldquo;Jurassic Park&rdquo; films do well internationally because it&rsquo;s easier to understand why dinosaurs kill people than what drives someone to fight evil dressed up in a costume, and &ldquo;Jurassic World: Rebirth&rdquo; is the first film in the series in a long while not to receive a total critical drubbing. (Granted, its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/jurassic_world_rebirth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">51 percent<\/a> Rotten Tomatoes score ain&rsquo;t great, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/disneys-woke-lightyear-tanks-us-box-office-mainstream-media-cant-seem-figure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">considering prior recent versions got scores<\/a> made Joe Biden&rsquo;s poll numbers look fantastic, there&rsquo;s that too.)<\/p>\n<p>Finally, it could just be marketing &mdash; or the fact that the film is harder to market, period. Superman is played by David Corenswet, whose star power has mostly been limited to critically acclaimed but commercially modest Netflix series. Lois Lane is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/lois-lane-save-superman-upcoming-reboot-actually-fearless-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachel Brosnahan<\/a>, whose breakout role &mdash; the titular character in &ldquo;The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,&rdquo; which was indeed marvelous &mdash; was in a series that definitely doesn&rsquo;t translate well outside of an American milieu. (Forget explaining Lenny Bruce to foreign audiences;&nbsp;<em>you<\/em> try dubbing or subtitling the dialogue in an Amy Sherman-Palladino <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JsVDYGYaJPE?si=EIAAK5rv4LYR5ubW&amp;t=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> into Chinese without losing the context.)<\/p>\n<p>So blame all of those. But don&rsquo;t blame anti-American sentiment when Captain freaking America &mdash; did I mention part of his name is America and he&rsquo;s also the captain of it by implication? &mdash; did quite superbly at the foreign box office. It doesn&rsquo;t hurt to blame Trump, no, unless somebody bothers to check your dumb, reflexive theory. Just saying.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your business is struggling in international markets in 2025, it&#8217;s easy to blame President Donald Trump. You might point to vague reasons like anti-American sentiment, tariff confusion, or geopolitical backlash. While these excuses are likely unfounded, having a convenient scapegoat disliked by the media can be helpful-especially in entertainment. Blaming conservatives for poor film performance isn&#8217;t new; this year, critics said anti-woke backlash hurt Pixar&#8217;s &#8220;Elio.&#8221; Trump is often seen as the root cause. However, when Disney reportedly removed the character&#8217;s original &#8220;queer-coded&#8221; traits from the story, it left little plot beyond that aspect-meaning there wasn&#8217;t much of a story to begin with. In fact, Trump may have prevented it from doing worse.<\/p>\n<p>The situation with &#8220;Superman,&#8221; directed by James Gunn and performing decently at the box office but with some issues, is more complex. The film earned $217 million worldwide ($122 million domestic) its opening weekend and received positive audience scores and reviews.<\/p>\n<p>However, internationally &#8220;Superman&#8221; fell short of $100 million grossing only about $95 million overseas; 56% of its total revenue came from North America. Asia showed weak returns ($13.3 million combined from China, Japan and South Korea), Europe was also underwhelming outside a $9.8 million UK opening-with France, Italy and Spain contributing just $9.6 million compared to $15.6 million for &#8220;The Batman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>James Gunn attributed part of this to Trump: Superman isn&#8217;t as well-known globally as Batman; plus current global anti-American sentiment doesn&#8217;t help sales abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Yet another American superhero movie released this year-&#8220;Captain America: Brave New World&#8221;-had a better domestic-to-international ratio: roughly equal earnings at home ($200M) and abroad ($215M). Meanwhile Superman made more domestically ($265M) than internationally ($173M).<\/p>\n<p>Looking back at the original 1978 &#8220;Superman,&#8221; which came out during a time when America was viewed poorly worldwide due to Vietnam War aftermath and diplomatic crises like Iran hostage situation-the film still earned more internationally than domestically (about $166M vs $134M). So anti-American feelings alone don&#8217;t explain current results.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, other American franchises like &#8220;Jurassic World: Rebirth&#8221; are dominating international box office now despite being released earlier than Superman-with strong global earnings exceeding domestic totals significantly.<\/p>\n<p>Gunn may be right that Superman lacks Marvel-level global appeal after many troubled DC adaptations hurt consumer confidence outside North America (except for successes like Nolan&#8217;s Batman trilogy). Also relevant is marketing difficulty since lead actor David Corenswet has limited star power mostly known for niche Netflix shows; Lois Lane actress Rachel Brosnahan&#8217;s fame comes mainly from an American-centric series less relatable overseas.<\/p>\n<p>In summary: blaming anti-American sentiment or Trump oversimplifies things when Captain America performed well globally despite his name; factors such as character popularity abroad, franchise reputation issues, marketing challenges and cultural differences play bigger roles in foreign box office outcomes today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2467054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael-Featured-Image-29.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[59980,59979,59978,58600,3634],"class_list":["post-2467053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-1978-classic","tag-christopher-reeve","tag-global-slump","tag-superman-2","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michael-Featured-Image-29.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2467053"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467057,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467053\/revisions\/2467057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2467053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2467053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2467053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}