The Weekend Read | Issue No. 59

Good News for Procrastinators

Our inbox just had the busiest week in PREVO’s history, receiving more film submissions than any other week. So in order to make sure all of these new films remain eligible for the Summer Showcase competition (voting opens in a few weeks), we’re extending the deadline to July 20th.

Worse than Morbius?

Supergirl is a major flop; there’s no doubt about it. The question is: did it deserve to bomb this badly? Or was it just an unfortunate victim of Toy Story 5, the World Cup, a heat wave, and America’s 250th? Nicolas James investigates.

Read Receipts, Vol. 6: Best Reviewed and Worst Performing

Last week, Anthony Fallow argued that the Gentleminions were a happy accident that no studio could summon on command. This week, Universal tried anyway. Find out how it went below.

By Ryder McNeal

One of the most surprising super-flops in recent memory, to me, was Supergirl last weekend. For those who didn’t read last week’s Read Receipts: the Milly Alcock–led DC Universe follow-up to last summer’s box-office hit Superman was a colossal failure, coming in behind even 2022’s Morbius. (For more on Morbius, see Anthony Fallow’s piece from last week’s Issue 58.) DC fans will be quick to note that Supergirl‘s opening was only a million behind Morbius‘, but even an opening a million ahead of one of the most infamous flops in recent memory would have been a disaster.

And for James Gunn — the director who delivered some of Marvel’s biggest hits of the 2010s before crossing the aisle to run rival DC himself — the timing couldn’t be worse. DC, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is about to come under new ownership — WarnerMount? ParaBros? — and its incoming owner, David Ellison, is unlikely to be enthused about Supergirl‘s poor performance. Gunn didn’t direct the film, but in the world of cinematic universes, the buck stops with whoever is steering the overarching vision — Gunn, in this case.

If the timing were any different, Supergirl would have been an unfortunate flop, a victim of too much competition: the World Cup, Toy Story 5, and the rest. It would have spurred nothing more than a reassessment of the other DC films in development. But for Gunn — and his vision of a new, shiny DC Universe, Marvel-esque in its wholesomeness — this is an especially dicey moment. Like so much in Hollywood right now, the essential question boils down to one thing: what will David Ellison do?

My take: Gunn is safe, for now. There’s too much already in development to pull the plug, and there’s a real case that Supergirl was simply mistimed. The film even connected with the people it reached: the women who turned out rated it far higher than the men did — a 62% “definite recommend” versus 45% — which suggests the movie worked for the audience it was built for, even if the marketing never got enough of them through the door. In another world — a quieter summer — would Supergirl have landed closer to Superman?

We’ll never know. But there is one Weekend Read writer who dared to ask whether it should have been a hit. That writer is Nicolas James. Below, you’ll find his review of Supergirl.

After that, Read Receipts closes us out with a recap of the holiday weekend at the box office. Were the Minions able to recapture their box office magic?

One final bit of news: while DC spent last weekend struggling to get anyone to show up, we’ve had the opposite problem. This past week brought the most PREVO film submissions we’ve ever received in a single week – by a wide margin – and they haven’t let up yet. (I’ve gotten several more just in the time it took to put this issue together.)

And because so many filmmakers are finding PREVO for the first time right now – through our social media, a friend, or the great people at Filmmakers Academy who recently shared the details of our Summer Showcase competition – I don’t want anyone barely missing the Showcase deadline, which was originally today. So we’re pushing the Summer Showcase submission deadline back to July 20. If you’ve been meaning to enter, you now have two more weeks. If you already have: you’ve got a head start.

And if you’re here to watch films, rather than submit them, voting opens once submissions close on the 20th, and the field is going to be very competitive.

That’s all for now.

By Nicolas James

Just when DC Studios thought its time had come, the reality of a poor box office crashed down on it like a Kryptonian spaceship hurtling toward Earth. Supergirlunderperformed, with only a $38 million opening weekend domestically. Critics have treated it just as harshly, handing it a 57% Rotten Tomatoes score. Yet as underwhelming as the numbers are, many viewers – myself included – believe there’s plenty worth recognizing here.

Milly Alcock’s portrayal of the Woman of Tomorrow is by far the driving force of the film. Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl, is rich with emotional layers, trauma, and imperfections. Her characterization is on-brand for the misfit, reluctant heroes of a James Gunn project, from the lovable scoundrels of the Guardians of the Galaxytrilogy to the morally complex villains of The Suicide Squad.

Kara drinks her problems away, buries her trauma deep inside, and ignores her responsibilities on Earth. It’s a stark contrast to her boy-scout cousin, but once you see what she went through at a young age, you’ll understand why she behaves this way – and some of you will even relate to her. Despite all of it, Kara doesn’t let her hardships make her hateful or vindictive, even if she’s emotionally closed off. Instead, she rises to her cousin’s standard and forges her grief into a righteous path: defending the innocent.

One complaint going around is that the film’s scale is too small and inconsequential to the DC universe. As I argued in my Mandalorian and Grogu piece, self-contained stories are fine as long as there are personal stakes. You can complain all you want about this movie, but you can’t say it lacks personal stakes.

My favorite scenes are the ones where Kara is alone and can be her true, broken self without anyone watching. That’s when Alcock’s acting shines brightest. Whether she’s screaming her pent-up turmoil into the quiet void of space or agonizing under a green sun while reflecting on the loss of her family, her people, and her home, there’s no denying Kara endures a plethora of physical and emotional strife across the film. What it lacks is the world-ending conflict we’ve come to expect from the genre.

Despite an emotional core that could rival Marvel at its peak, there are still reasonable complaints to be made. The most glaring is that, overall, the film lacks color. This has become a broad criticism of nearly every new release lately, as Hollywood prioritizes CGI and grit over cinematography and lighting. Audiences are fed up with bland visuals and want to see movies with authentic, stimulating images.

Supergirl, unfortunately, is no exception. The only real glimmer of color is Kara’s suit, which she doesn’t wear until the third act. That makes sense for her character arc, but if you’ve read the comic this movie is based on, as I have, you’ll be even more disappointed than the average moviegoer. Its artwork is some of the most vibrant and beautiful I’ve ever seen. I’m sure the filmmakers wanted to assert a visual identity of their own, but the high standard of the source material was neither matched nor exceeded.

The movie takes plenty of other departures from the source material, too. It captures the comic’s spirit, but the narrative changes felt less like bold creative decisions and more like concessions to the strict Hollywood franchise formula. The inclusion of fan-favorite character Lobo, for instance, was an exciting addition, but the plot seemed reworked to make room for Jason Momoa’s dream role. As much as I love Lobo, his presence wasn’t necessary to the story. He was there to sell tickets – which, given the numbers, means he failed.

One departure that actually works in the film’s favor is shifting the central subject from genocide to human trafficking. The movie touches on the destruction of Krypton, but it doesn’t depict the wholesale slaughter of civilizations at the hands of the villainous brigands the way the comic does. Instead, the conflict centers on the capture of young girls meant to bear sons for the brigands. The smaller scale of this movie makes that change work, and human trafficking is a timely subject too many people would rather ignore. I only wish Supergirl could fly off the screen and mete out some real-life justice.

The quality of Supergirl might have been enough during the late-2010s golden age of superhero films, but audiences have made it clear they’re done with mediocre visuals and forgettable action. Even so, I recommend Supergirl – not for the action or the visuals, but for the deep character study at its center. Kara Zor-El is a great addition to the new DC universe, and I hope the film’s poor reception doesn’t keep her from becoming an important character in the movies to come.

Weekend of July 4th, 2026

• #1: Minions & Monsters led the holiday – with the worst opening and best reviews in franchise history. Universal and Illumination’s seventh Despicable Me entry took an estimated $36 million across the three-day weekend (roughly $61 million since its Wednesday launch), making it easily number one, but well under its $80 million target and less than half of The Rise of Gru‘s $123 million holiday debut in 2022. It’s no bomb, to be sure: 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and the best-reviewed film in the series. But the domestic number is a disappointment, to be sure. The Gentleminions didn’t show.

• #2: Toy Story 5 refused to yield. Pixar’s sequel held to roughly $32 million in its third weekend (down about 55%), pushing its domestic total near $367 million and its worldwide haul past $600 million. For the first time, the Minions and Toys shared a weekend, and the two split it nearly down the middle, cannibalizing each other in the process.

• #3: Young Washington was the weekend’s overperformer. Angel Studios’ origin story of a pre-Revolution George Washington, timed to America’s 250th birthday, opened to roughly $20 million against $15 million forecasts, with an A CinemaScore (even as critics landed at 57%).

• #4: Supergirl fell off the map. DC’s superhero flop dropped a brutal 74% in its second weekend to an estimated $9.6 million, limping to $58.5 million domestic.

• The macro: the entire holiday managed only about $121 million from Friday to Sunday – down roughly 21% from the same July frame a year ago. Blame a Fourth that landed on a Saturday (pulling families to barbecues and fireworks over theaters), the World Cup, a national heatwave, and the pull of America’s 250th.

  What it means for filmmakers: Last week, Anthony Fallow argued that the Gentleminions were never a marketing triumph; they were an accident, an organic moment Universal stumbled into and every studio has been trying to reverse-engineer ever since. With Minions and Monsters, Universal did everything they could to recreate the Gentleminions phenomenon but still failed to recapture that magic. Nothing beats an organic trend.