Nolte: ‘Clayface’ Looks Like Another James Gunn DC Disappointment

Clayface, the latest comic book movie from James Gunn’s faltering DC Universe, has drawn tepid reviews and box-office tracking that makes Supergirl look like a monster hit.

“While trailers promised a fun movie for horror fans, the project’s pre-sales have lagged behind the worst-performing DCU film to date,” according to one report. “Currently, Clayface’s domestic pre-sales lag by 80% in comparison to Supergirl’s pre-sales at a similar time, which is a week from its theatrical release.”

The report continues, “Even compared to a more genre-specific competitor, Resident Evil, Clayface is 66% behind on pre-sales. This puts its expected opening weekend collection at $20 million.”

Some tracking shows Clayface’s opening this weekend could dip into the teens.

Clayface faces three headwinds…

The first is a DC brand damaged by that Supergirl flop and the backlash against HBO’s Green Lantern series Lanterns. And let’s face it, despite the hype and spin, 2025’s Superman did not perform all that well.

Then there are the reviews. While a 77 percent fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes is not the end of the world, it also doesn’t light any fires.

Finally, Clayface is up against what is shaping up to be a legitimate phenomenon with You Can See Everything, the three-hour documentary about disgraced (and rightly imprisoned) Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. After opening in 855 theaters last weekend, it is expanding to 2,655 theaters this weekend for a very good reason: it is raking in millions — $21 million so far. There’s a chance its second weekend could top Clayface, which would be humiliating for DC.

If Clayface underperforms, the only good news for Gunn is that it didn’t cost much. All in all, production and promotion,  it probably cost around $100 million. That means it will have to gross around $200 million worldwide to break even. If it fails to do that…

Clayface’s tracking has also diminished with time. At the beginning of the month, predictions ranged from a $23 million to $33 million opening.

Also opening this weekend is the pro-censorship Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G: Who Iz I?, which had been tracking for a $6 million to $10 million opening weekend. That looks awfully optimistic to me, but who knows? Amazon/MGM doesn’t appear to have much faith in it. What had originally been announced as a full-bore theatrical rollout has since been cut to just this one weekend.

My question is this: Was anyone asking for a Clayface movie?