Although it has been an extremely strong year at the box office, 2026 has still had its fair share of flops, from Jessie Buckley‘s divisive performance in The Bride! and director Travis Knight‘s Masters of the Universeto the critically panned AI-based thriller Mercy and the inevitable flop The Death of Robin Hood. But perhaps the most notable flop of the year came from the new DC Universe, as talented young star Milly Alcock headlined as Kara Zor-El for the first time.
Opening to just $38 million domestically and $68 million worldwide, Supergirl marked a significant drop compared to last summer’s surprise smash Superman, as it whimpered out of theaters with just $126 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $170 million. So poor was this result that DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safranfelt the need to publicly comment, admitting that “Supergirl didn’t meet our box office expectations,” but adding, “it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in.” For James Gunn, who was an executive producer and creative supervisor on Supergirl, this is far from his first flop.
Back in 2021, Gunn faced a similar box office disaster as writer and director of The Suicide Squad, a sequel to David Ayer‘s Suicide Squad from 2016. The film boasted a $185 million budget and a stacked cast of famous faces, from Margot Robbie and John Cena to Idris Elba. However, it only made $168.7 million in total global revenue, falling far short of expectations and becoming one of the most high-profile flops of 2021. Gunn himself acknowledged the failure, although he was quick to admit that the COVID-19 pandemic and a poor streaming release strategy harmed its chances.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
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🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
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You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
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You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
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You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
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You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
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You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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‘The Suicide Squad’ Has Bounced Back
Five years later and in the shadow of Supergirl‘s collapse, The Suicide Squad has surprisingly bounced back. At the time of writing, the film is one of the ten most-watched on Netflix worldwide. Other films to have ranked in the current top ten include the 2026 Indian film Cocktail 2, Kevin Hart‘s latest Netflix comedy 72 Hours, the 2003 rom-com gem What a Girl Wants, the 2015 sci-fi favorite Extinction, and Louis Leterrier‘s The Last House.
Stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.
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