Clayface Falls Behind DC Flop Supergirl During Box Office Kickoff

Clayface is having a soft debut for the franchise at the domestic box office.

The new DC Comics-based horror movie stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen, a movie star whose prospects turn dark when his face becomes malleable and claylike. 2026’s Clayface, which was directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, is the third theatrical installment in the newly rebranded DC Universe. Although the franchise had a solid start with 2025’s Superman, which grossed $618.7 million against its reported $225 million budget, that movie’s follow-up was 2026’s Supergirl, a box office bomb that grossed just $126.4 million against a reported budget of at least $170 million.

Per Variety, Clayface earned $3.5 million at the domestic box office during its preview screenings on Thursday night. Clayface is ultimately expected to earn a projected domestic opening weekend gross of between $25 and $35 million.

If Clayface ends up falling to the lower bounds of that range, there is a possibility that it could lose No. 1 to the smash hit A24 documentary You Can See Everything. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s buzzy documentary about Elizabeth Holmes surged during its opening weekend, making a surprise debut at No. 2. It is set to expand even wider this weekend, adding more than 1,600 theaters. While it is currently only projected to earn $20 to $25 million during its sophomore weekend, if it surges again thanks to its glowing reviews, it will become a formidable opponent.

Additionally, Clayface‘s domestic preview total is less than half of what Supergirl earned during its own Thursday night screenings ahead of its $37.1 million domestic debut. Below, see a breakdown of the preview numbers of every DCU movie up to this point:

There are a number of factors that complicate the prospects of Clayface‘s performance, for better and for worse. First of all, it’s not entirely shocking that it debuted with lower previews than the previous DCU movie. Supergirl debuted over the summer, during which time schools in the United States are out of session and more potential audience members are available to see movies on weekdays. Additionally, Supergirl was rated PG-13, opening itself up to a broader audience than the R-rated Clayface.

However, the new movie still suffers in comparison to two recent R-rated DC movies that were also theatrical flops, namely 2020’s Birds of Prey ($4 million in previews) and 2021’s The Suicide Squad ($4.1 million).

Regardless, it does have certain advantages over Supergirl, including the fact that Clayface reviews are strong, earning it a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 75% from critics with a Verified Hot audience score of 94%, which is considerably better than Supergirl‘s 52% and 72%.

Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Additionally, the reported budget of Clayface is just $44 million, which is nearly a quarter of what Supergirl cost, in addition to being significantly cheaper than the reported budgets of Birds of Prey (roughly $90 million) and The Suicide Squad ($185 million). This most likely places its estimated break-even point somewhere around $110 million. If it follows the same trajectory as Supergirl, it could ultimately gross between $85 and $120 million. While that could be just enough to break even, its superior reviews could help it build word of mouth and push even further past that benchmark.

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