10 Lowest Grossing Superhero Films

Worldwide Gross: $14,296,438

Before Superman III failed to perform at the US box office, the Salkinds greenlit this spin-off starring Helen Slater as Kara Zor-El, niece to Jor-El and cousin to Superman. How did she escape the destruction of Krypton, you ask? She’s been living in an isolated Kryptonian community with Peter O’Toole.

So far so basic, but then an accident sends the “Omegahedron”, the community’s power source, hurtling through space towards Earth, where it lands in Faye Dunaway’s cheese dip (!). Dressed in garish flowing robes and a bright red fright wig, Dunaway (who’s in full Mommie Dearest mode here) immediately realizes she can use the device to rule the world even though her plan includes levitating dinner party guests and lighting cigarettes with her fingers.

Can Kara stop her? Did you really have to ask?

Neither a better nor worse film than Superman III, Supergirl takes a similar lurch towards camp with the casting of Peter Cook, who gets the Richard Pryor role as the comic relief sidekick to the main villain and does his career no favors in the process.