Superman Quietly Beat One of the Best Marvel Movies at the Box Office

Even though Superman is flying high on HBO Max right now, the film’s box office totals from around the globe are still telling an interesting story of its success. We already knew that the movie was a clear winner when compared to other 2025 superhero movies that were released (like Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps) and that it fell a little short of 2013’s Man of Steel, the last attempt at rebooting Superman. In the time since the movie has largely exited theaters, however, another key comparison has made itself clear, one that paints Superman‘s box office success in a new light when looking at a major Marvel title.

As of this writing, Superman‘s final global box office total sits at $615.6 million. When looking at the all-time global box office charts, Superman‘s current place in the list reveals a surprising film it has surpassed. Currently, Superman is #188 at the global box office, all-time, and two slots right below it is none other than 2017’s Logan, which sits at #190 with a cumulative haul of $614.2 million.

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Superman Quietly Beats Logan, A Film 10+ Years in the Making

Superman‘s box office success in 2025 stands apart from what Logan was able to accomplish just eight years ago for a few reasons. Not only has the global box office become a completely different animal for all movies, not just blockbusters, but the interest in superheroes as a whole has waned significantly in recent years. For Superman to become the highest-grossing superhero movie of 2025 is a sure sign that audiences aren’t fatigued by tights and capes; they’re fatigued by bad movies and being expected to keep up with new TV shows, too.

Even though Superman‘s global box office total has eclipsed Logan‘s, this is not a knock on the X-Men movie in the slightest; in fact, it’s proof that the Hugh Jackman-starring movie was one of the biggest hits of the entire franchise. Logan marked the first Wolverine movie to actually be rated R, something that would normally be a kiss of death for a huge feature film, but which actually became a selling point for the movie. It was also sold to audiences as being Jackman’s final time to play the character (which was true at the time), building on over 15 years of appearances in movies.

Upon its release, Logan became the third highest-grossing X-Men movie (at the time behind just X-Men: Days of Future Past and Deadpool). It quickly surpassed not only every other Wolverine movie but would go on to become an awards contender, including an Oscar nomination.

This is where the nuance of Superman and Logan‘s box office success takes a very interesting turn. When looking at the two divides of global box office, domestic vs international hauls, the two movies are flipped. Superman had a higher domestic total, with $354 million vs Logan‘s $226 million; while Logan‘s international haul was higher, bringing in $387 million vs Superman‘s $260 million.

Suffice to say, despite Superman being the “winner” in terms of domestic success and global box office, the film’s eclipsing Logan should be an indicator of success for both films, not a sign that one is clearly better than the other. James Mangold’s 2017 movie was a major win for comic book movies at the time, and to be seated alongside Superman in 2025 shows that James Gunn’s DCU is off to a great start. In the end, the real winners here are the audience.