If you listen to the Hollywood access media this week, you’d think Superman has taken flight in streaming ratings. Headlines are praising its debut on HBO Max, highlighting how the reboot soared to #4 on Nielsen’s Top 10 Movies chart during its first three days of release.
‘SUPERMAN’ debuts at #4 on Nielsen’s Streaming Movie Top 10 after just three days on HBO Max! pic.twitter.com/etO6fXnOge
— DC Film News (@DCFilmNews) October 16, 2025
But a closer look tells a more complicated story. The numbers reveal a debut that’s both promising and precarious: strong initial turnout, but a worrying lack of interest compared to similar superhero releases. While Superman outperformed competitors like Disney’s Elio and KPop Demon Hunters on a daily average basis, it still trailed notorious super hero bombs like Captain America: Brave New World and even DC’s Black Adam.
Nielsen Ratings for September 15-21 2025 – Nielsen
According to Nielsen’s official report for September 15–21, 2025, Superman generated 513 million minutes of viewing time, enough to take the #4 spot among streaming movies. However, it failed to crack Nielsen’s overall Top 10, a list that includes both movies and TV series.
That means Superman didn’t crash, but it didn’t exactly soar either — and for a film meant to launch an entire cinematic universe, “good but not great” may not be enough.
Marvel’s Streaming Edge
For context, Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World debuted with 750 million minutes over four days, and Thunderbolts reached 702 million minutes in five days — both charting across Nielsen’s overall and movie lists. While these results were measured in a longer period than Superman’s tracked ratings, when averaging per-day viewership, Superman still lags behind Brave New World.
Superman fighting The Hammer of Boravia in the trailer for James Gunn’s Superman – YouTube, DC
The math is hard to ignore: Gunn’s Superman pulled 171 million minutes per day, compared to 187 million for Brave New World. Considering that Superman dropped on a Friday, its weekend spike almost certainly fell off during the workweek, suggesting that its average declined further beyond Nielsen’s three-day window.
Thunderbolts averaged about 140 million minutes daily — meaning Gunn’s Superman actually performed better on a per-day basis, though with fewer total minutes since it only had three days measured.
Beaten by Black Adam
The most damning comparison comes from within DC itself. Nielsen previously reported that Black Adam scored 632 million minutes during its first three days on HBO Max — a much stronger start than Gunn’s Superman, despite Black Adam being written off by many outlets as a failure.
That’s right — the film Gunn’s camp once mocked as a flop outperformed his flagship reboot by over 100 million minutes.
Black Adam (2022), Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s worth remembering that when Gunn was appointed co-chief of DC Studios in late 2022, it happened during Black Adam’s theatrical stumble. Now, with the tables turned, the streaming numbers suggest Johnson’s film may have resonated more with audiences than Gunn’s heavily marketed reset.
However, it should be noted that Black Adam’s global box office haul of $393,452,111 pales in comparison to Superman’s $614 million.
A Closer Look: Daily Averages Tell a More Nuanced Story
At first glance, the Nielsen rankings make Superman look like it crashed and burned. It landed at #4 on the Movies chart, trailing KPop Demon Hunters (which had been out for a month) and Disney’s Elio (a notorious bomb). But when you take a closer look at the daily averages, the picture becomes more complicated — and not quite as dire as some headlines suggest.
A screenshot from the trailer to KPop Demon Hunters – YouTube, Sony Pictures Animation
KPop Demon Hunters, which held the top spot for the week, logged 828 million minutes across the full seven-day measurement window from September 15–21. That breaks down to roughly 118 million minutes per day. Elio, despite its reputation as one of Disney’s weakest animated performers in years, managed 550 million minutes over five days — about 110 million per day.
By comparison, Superman drew 513 million minutes over just three days, giving it a far stronger daily average of 171 million minutes. In other words, for the brief window Nielsen measured, Gunn’s reboot actually outpaced both Elio and KPop Demon Hunters in terms of concentrated viewership intensity.
Elio in the trailer for the Pixar movie Elio – YouTube, Pixar
So while the Superman ratings headline reads like a failure, the deeper data indicates a strong initial turnout over those three days. That nuance matters, and it’s a sign that while Gunn’s DCU reboot is struggling to sustain engagement overall, it hasn’t lost all audience interest — at least not yet.
A Troubling Trend for Gunn’s DCU
The weak debut for Superman isn’t an isolated incident — it fits a broader pattern of decline under Gunn’s stewardship. Peacemaker Season 2 dropped nearly 40% in viewership before its cancellation, while Creature Commandos failed to appear on Nielsen’s charts at all.
James Gunn introduces the trailer for Peacemaker Season 2 – YouTube, DC
Now, Superman has underperformed in both theaters and streaming, despite Warner Bros. Discovery promoting it as the cornerstone of a revitalized DC Universe.
Gunn’s DCU appears to be struggling to find its audience — or worse, to convince them to care.
Theatrical Numbers Tell the Story
As Forbes noted, Superman ultimately lost money during its theatrical run, falling short of the breakeven mark once marketing and distribution costs were factored in. Yet, it’s worth acknowledging that Superman did earn more in theaters than any of the comparable films its now competing with on streaming — Captain America: Brave New World and Black Adam.
Superman and Lex Luthor in a Jim Lee-Created teaser image for the Superman Sequel Man of Tomorrow – X, @JamesGunn
That paradox is telling. Those other titles may have flopped in theaters, but they appear to be enjoying stronger legs on streaming platforms, suggesting a deeper post-theatrical engagement that Gunn’s reboot failed to capture.
One possible explanation is that Superman performed unusually well in PVOD (premium video-on-demand) sales, which could have siphoned off a chunk of its potential streaming audience. That’s only conjecture for now — but it would explain why HBO Max’s Nielsen figures appear soft despite broader consumer awareness.
Audience Fatigue or Leadership Failure?
At this point, it’s fair to question whether the problem lies with superhero fatigue or with Gunn himself. Under his creative direction, DC’s messaging has shifted from mythic heroism to ironic self-awareness and political subtext — the very approach audiences seem to be rejecting.
Rumors continue to swirl that Gunn will be out if the Warner Bros. Discovery sale to Ellison’s Skydance moves forward — a move that could reset the entire DC strategy yet again.
Superman withstands fire in the trailer for James Gunn’s Superman – YouTube, DC
Meanwhile, Warner’s film division, led by Mike De Luca, has already slotted the Minecraft 2 sequel just two weeks after Gunn’s planned follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, in 2027 — a clear sign that the studio isn’t prioritizing the DCU’s timeline.
How do you feel about these Superman streaming ratings? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
I get the feeling D+ has more subscribers than HBO streaming service. Or whatever it is called now. Or more people skipped paying for Captain African America and Thunderbolts in the theater but figure if it is on D+ it is “free”.
Getting beat by Elio does not sound like a win to me.
Gunn is turning out to be Star Wars Kathleen Whatshername with a knob.
Excpet Kennedy at least got her franchise to a billion dollars before she ran it into the ground. Gunn can’t even manage that.