Priorities, priorities.
“Superman” director James Gunn is aware of the place his bread is buttered. Or, no less than he thinks he does.
Gunn capped a livid advertising blitz for his Man of Metal reboot by attacking Trump supporters in The Instances of London. He described his new movie as an ode to immigration – conflating the authorized and unlawful varieties as dishonest liberals do.
James Gunn Confirms Superman Is About Politics, Immigration and Decline of American Kindness — Says “Screw Them” to “Jerks” Who Get Offendedhttps://t.co/5229LZISfz
— That Park Place (@TPPNewsNetwork) July 6, 2025
Gunn took it a step additional. He stated, “screw” these who don’t agree along with his worldview. The feedback swiftly went viral. He will need to have anticipated that response.
If he didn’t, he’s extra of an alien to Earth than his title character.
But the identical Gunn went out of his strategy to reward Communist China throughout the press push within the Center Kingdom.
“Superman is a film for everyone internationally, and it’s particularly for the folks of China,” Gunn stated throughout his go to to the nation. “China is a very powerful place for me by way of the place I discovered to make motion pictures and the way I like to make motion pictures.”
It bought much more embarrassing.
“Though I’ve solely been to China as soon as earlier than, it’s like coming dwelling to me,” Gunn gushed. “These are the flicks that fueled this — it doesn’t exist with out this.”
At the least he didn’t converse in Mandarin like a sure motion film star.
Gunn wouldn’t describe his personal nation that manner. He’s gone on document as evaluating President Donald Trump to Hitler – a number of instances. Heck, he didn’t even deploy Superman’s signature line, “Reality, justice and the American manner” in his movie.
Besides his China pandering went for naught. And he ought to have recognized higher.
U.S. movies have struggled in China in recent times. That wasn’t the case a number of years in the past, when American blockbusters made huge earnings within the nation.
“Avengers: Endgame” earned a staggering $632 million within the Communist nation.
That was then. Now, Chinese language filmmakers create motion pictures that rival U.S.-made titles by way of particular results and total high quality. Chinese language moviegoers favor homegrown tales, which is sensible.
So it’s little shock that Gunn’s “Superman” bombed in China. The movie received’t even make $10 million throughout its opening body. That’s disastrous for a film with a sky-high funds. Media estimates peg the quantity as between $225 million (the Warner Bros. determine) to $363 million (official tax paperwork).
And that doesn’t embrace the advertising hundreds of thousands spent on the title.
Why would Gunn reward China, a rustic rife with human rights abuses, and assault MAGA? He needed extra Chinese language residents to see his movie and fewer right-leaning People to do the identical.
Is there some other reply that is sensible?
Extra importantly, Gunn is much less offended by Chinese language officers holding Uyghur residents in focus camp-like facilities and crushing speech than Trump voters clamoring for sealed borders and power independence.