Avengers: Doomsday Ticket Presales Top Supergirl's Worldwide Box Office Run

Superhero movies have been experiencing troubled times of late. But "Avengers: Doomsday" might just be able to save the flailing genre. Thus far, the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up movie has already set box office records with pre-sales, and now, it's just passed another significant milestone. According to a Forbes report from October 31, 2026, "Doomsday" took $125 million in pre-sales by the end of October across all cinema formats. This means that, by now, it has passed the entire box office gross for DC Studios' "Supergirl."

For the most part, DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran have gotten off to a decent start with their DC Universe. The fledgling franchise has delivered such hits as the charming crowd-pleaser "Superman" and the HBO series "Lanterns," proving this latest cinematic enterprise can deliver everything from lighthearted superhero shenanigans to gritty comic book crime dramas. But there has been one glaring misstep thus far: "Supergirl."

Though the movie itself isn't actually all that bad (/Film's review noted that Milly Alcock shines as the self-destructive savior of the DCU in "Supergirl), its box office returns were less than heroic. Indeed, "Supergirl" took in just $126.5 million against a $170-186 million budget, which means "Doomsday" has now matched the film's entire gross before it's even hit theaters. 

To be fair, that's more embarrassing for DC Studios than it is encouraging for Marvel Studios, as "Supergirl" isn't a major event movie featuring beloved characters that have been at the forefront of pop culture for the last 20 years. But while a movie that includes everything the MCU has to offer beating "Supergirl" at the box office in pre-sales alone isn't quite as big an accomplishment as it may seem, it's also a reminder that DC can't afford another "Supergirl"-level flop anytime soon.

Back in September 2026, "Avengers: Doomsday" set a major box office record for Marvel when it surpassed $50 million in pre-sales 100 days ahead of its release on December 18, 2026. That was good news for Marvel Studios and fans of the franchise, which has been conspicuously struggling in recent years as mass audiences tire of the interconnected superhero narratives being told by studio head Kevin Feige and his collaborators. As Forbes pointed out, however, "Doomsday" is far from a sure bet for the company.

According to the outlet, pre-sales are almost certainly coming from die-hard fans who want to secure their chance to see the movie as soon as it drops. But 2025's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" also saw a solid turnout from die-hards before its box office took a hit. That said, it seems unlikely "Doomsday" will suffer a similar fate. Not only is this an Avengers movie, which carries a certain amount of prestige and recognition, Marvel Studios has packed this thing with fan-favorite characters a là 2024's "Deadpool & Wolverine" — which, as it happens, was a major box office success.

With Robert Downey Jr. set to make his MCU return as Victor Von Doom, alongside beloved MCU characters of the past and the 20th Century Fox-era X-Men, it seems likely "Doomsday" will succeed simply by sheer crowd-pleasing power. Meanwhile, there's no getting around the fact that "Supergirl" flopped hard at the box office earlier this year, and DC Studios will want to avoid any similar occurrences with its upcoming slate.

In light of how superhero movies have struggled in recent years, "Supergirl" seemed doomed from the outset. Taking lesser-known characters and turning them into cultural icons worked for Marvel Studios back in the late 2000s and 2010s after 2008's "Iron Man" became the unlikely superhero movie that changed Hollywood forever. But that started yielding diminishing returns by the 2020s, as audiences grew tired of having to keep up with wider developments in the shared universe via middling streaming series and bland, paint-by-numbers movies.

As such, James Gunn's decision to follow up "Superman" with "Supergirl" seemed sort of baffling. We'd seen Milly Alcock's Kryptonian show up briefly in "Superman," but otherwise, this was an unknown iteration of a second-tier DC character who quite clearly had very little box office pull at the time she was given an entire movie. Jason Momoa's Lobo was on-hand to try to increase the appeal, but it was obvious that mass audiences weren't going to turn out. With that in mind, it's not surprising that "Doomsday" has already surpassed the entire box office take of "Supergirl."

Now, the question becomes whether "Doomsday" can, in fact, overcome the issues highlighted by Forbes to establish itself as the true savior of the MCU. The original "Doomsday" teaser trailers were boring, frankly, and RDJ's return as Doctor Doom was met with confusion among fans who remain perplexed as to why the actor is playing a major Marvel villain rather than Tony Stark/Iron Man. But Marvel has clearly managed to increase the hype for this movie since those early days of "Doomsday" promotion. The film matching the box office for "Supergirl" is just the latest sign that things are headed in the right direction.