The much awaited "Superman" reboot from Warner Bros. broke a new record for standalone Superman movies and made an incredible $125 million on its first weekend at the domestic box office.
After Monday's final totals evaluated Sunday's predicted $122 million, the movie, which stars David Corenswet as the famous Man of Steel, outperformed initial estimates.
With estimated global revenues of over $217 million, the superhero film achieved the second-largest opening day of the year on Friday, setting it positioned for a strong international performance and sparking numerous conversations about the state of politics worldwide.
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Ahead of the debut of the new movie, the White House has responded unexpectedly to director James Gunn's portrayal of Superman as an "immigrant story," which has received criticism from conservatives.
In a recent interview, director James Gunn described his upcoming Superman reboot as depicting an immigrant story, which escalated the discussion.
Gunn clarified, "I mean, Superman is the story of America," "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."
At the start of the latest Superman film, the hero has just stepped in to resolve a dispute between two made-up nations. Superman halted Boravia's invasion of neighboring Jarhanpur, which was headed by a dictator comparable to Trump. Although filmmaker Gunn claims he didn't base it on any particular real-world conflict, some viewers took this as a critique of Middle Eastern conflicts, but in reality, the countries are shown as European, similar to the Russia-Ukraine issue.
The White House engaged in the discussion by bringing to X, "THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP."
Gunn's comments triggered strong reactions from several high-profile conservatives. Former TV Superman actor Dean Cain acknowledged the character's immigrant background but objected to actively promoting immigration as an American value, stating "there have to be limits."
Kellyanne Conway, the host of Fox News, called the movie a "ideological lecture" without having seen it. In a different interview, Conway also acknowledged the fact that Superman's classic catchphrase, "truth, justice, and the American way," was substituted with "truth, justice, all that good stuff" by the film's lead, David Corenswet.
In reality, the phrase "American way" that Conway mentioned was added to Superman for the radio program during World War II, and it was later made popular by the television series in the 1950s. It has never played a major role in the character's initial model and didn't make an appearance in the comics until 1991.
Gunn's characterization's defenders cite Superman's basic history, which is that the character came to Earth as a newborn refugee escaping his dying planet Krypton. He learned to strike a balance between his adoptive culture and his ancestry, and like many immigrants, he changed his name from the foreign-sounding Kal-El to the more American Clark Kent.
Diving into the history of the character, Superman was created in 1938, when Hitler gained power, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, both of whom were Jewish immigrants' children. The character was created to represent the American ideal of a person who could defend the weak because he was aware of displacement.
Ironically, DC Comics created the character Lex Luthor in 1986 that many believe to be based off of Donald Trump. In 2000, Luthor was elected president of the comics with an anti-alien agenda.
Superman serves as an unexpected focal point for these larger cultural concerns, which emphasize persistent tensions over immigration and American identity. The choice by the White House to dress Trump as Superman deepens the dispute by implying that the symbolism of the character appeals to people of all political opinions, though in very different ways.
