James Gunn Says ‘Anti-American’ Sentiment Hurt ‘Superman’

James Gunn says Superman may be underperforming at the global box office due to politically charged anti-American sentiment abroad.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the filmmaker and co-CEO of DC Studios shared his belief that other countries’ feelings toward the U.S. right now have likely impacted the DCU movie's international box office performance negatively.

“Superman is not a known commodity in some places. He is not a big, known superhero in some places like Batman is. That affects things. And it also affects things that we have a certain amount of anti-American sentiment around the world right now. It isn’t really helping us,” Gunn explained.

READ MORE: James Gunn’s Superman Has Biggest Opening in Superman History

As for the film’s international numbers, the director said it’s “just a matter of letting something grow” organically.

“We’re definitely performing better domestically than we are internationally, but internationally is also rising and having really good weekday numbers in the same way we are. So obviously the word of mouth is very positive both here and everywhere else,” Gunn shared, revealing the movie has been performing well in the U.K. and Brazil.

“But again, for us, everything’s been a total win. Having the movie come out and be something that has been embraced by people everywhere — this is just the seed of the tree that Peter [Safran] and I have been watering for the past three years. So to be able to have it start off so positively has been incredibly overwhelming,” he added.

Is Superman ‘Superwoke’? James Gunn Weighs in on the Social Discourse

Ahead of Superman’s July 11 premiere, director James Gunn went viral and drew unexpected controversy when he told The Times U.K. that Superman represents “the story of America” as it’s about “an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”

After Fox News and other conservative outlets pushed back by calling the film “Superwoke,” Gunn expressed confusion over why the film would be considered “woke” in the first place.

Gunn told Entertainment Weekly:

I’ve heard people say it was woke, and then I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s not. I am curious as to what in the movie is considered woke. I think people took something I said…

That’s the thing we can all act upon, is kindness. And so what does that lead to? Well, does that lead to the way you vote? Sure. Does that lead to everything? Yeah. Does it lead to how many people are dying from road rage? Yes. All those things are affected if people just start to value kindness. I mean, people did value kindness in the past. That was an American value, was kindness, and it doesn’t necessarily seem to be that way to me anymore. So that was always the center of the movie for me, and it wasn’t about anything other than that.”

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