Milly Alcock Faces Worse Supergirl Tracking Before June 26
Supergirl is tracking to do substantially worse than Superman before its June 26 U.S. theatrical release, putting extra pressure on DC Studios’ next launch. James Gunn’s 2025 reset for the new DC direction already produced a box-office disappointment, and this one now opens with weaker pre-release signals.
Milly Alcock’s March remarks
Milly Alcock said in March that she has been criticized for “simply existing as a woman” in a superhero movie. “It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” she told Vanity Fair.
She added, “We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies.” For Alcock, the response was blunt: “I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself.”
James Gunn’s 2022 reset
James Gunn joined DC in 2022, and Superman was his first big movie for the new direction in 2025. He has described that film in political terms, saying, “Yes, it’s about politics,” and calling Superman “the story of America – an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.”
He also said, “It’s about human kindness, and obviously, there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness.” That framing fits the broader industry trend of superhero films carrying more explicit messaging, but the box-office history around recent releases has been unforgiving.
June 26 and DC’s next test
June 26 is the date that matters now. Supergirl arrives in U.S. theaters then, with tracking suggesting it will land below a film that was already described as a box-office disappointment.
That is the real problem for Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios: the new release strategy is being judged before it even reaches theaters. If the tracking holds, Supergirl will not just open under Superman; it will begin with less momentum than the film Gunn used to launch the rebooted DC slate.
The smart read is that DC needs the movie to outperform the mood around it, not just the current tracking. Alcock’s comments put the cultural noise on the record, but the business issue is simpler: a weaker debut would make the studio’s reset look more fragile, not less.
