No, Superman 2025 Hasn’t Beaten Man of Steel at the Box Office (Yet)

The box office numbers for Superman 2025 have been impressive so far, but the movie has yet to match Man of Steel. At first glance, the James Gunn-directed film has indeed raked in more money at the domestic box office, earning a whopping $316 million over Man of Steel’s $291 million (and Superman 2025’s run isn’t over). But there’s that pesky thing called inflation, and it’s been quite high in the US since the Zack Snyder film released in 2013. Taking that into consideration, Superman 2025 still has a long way to make it to the top of the Kryptonian pile.

Superman vs. Man of Steel box office numbers, when adjusted for inflation

To compare apples to apples, Superman 2025’s domestic box office numbers are $316 million so far while Man of Steel’s numbers are $291 million, which adjusts to roughly $400 million when accounting for inflation. While Superman 2025 hasn’t defeated Man of Steel quite yet, it could in a few months once the dust has settled.

Its box office performance internationally, though, are another story. Superman 2025 has only amassed $235 million, well short of the $379 million that Man of Steel made. And that’s not adjusting for inflation, which would be tricky anyway considering that different countries have had different rates of inflation over the last 12 years.

That said, if we were to use the UK as an example, Man of Steel grossed about £46.2 million overall, which according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator would be roughly £65 million today. By comparison, Superman 2025 has only earned £28.7 million in the country thus far, so it’s not looking likely that it will beat Man of Steel’s numbers even with a few extra months at the theaters there.

Another stat to consider is tickets sold. Global Box Office reported on X (formerly Twitter) on July 29 that Man of Steel sold 36 million tickets domestically and that Superman 2025 is still about 10 million tickets behind that. Of course, tickets sold is a tricky statistic since that greatly depends on the price of a ticket, which is affected by the specific theater chain, the theater’s location in the country, and various discounts. It also doesn’t consider streaming services, which have gained a far greater share of the market since a decade ago. Even so, it gives a birds-eye view of how many people actually saw each movie at the theaters, and in this case, Man of Steel has the edge.