Clayface Set To Fall Behind Supergirl With DCU's Lowest Box Office Debut

Published Oct 24, 2026, 11:11 AM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Clayface's box office projections are melting.

The new movie, which centers on the DC Comics villain Clayface (Tom Rhys Harries), also known as Matt Hagen, when his burgeoning acting career is derailed by a scientific mishap that renders his skin malleable and claylike. The R-rated body horror movie is the third installment in the DC Universe, which is the soft reboot of the former DC Extended Universe that kicked off with the 2025 hit Superman. 2026's Clayface debuted on October 23, just a few months after Supergirl bowed on June 26, kicking off a run that saw it become an outright bomb, grossing $126.4 million against a reported budget of $170 million or more.

Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Clayface is projected to earn a 3-day total between $24 and $25 million by the end of its opening weekend at the domestic box office. This sees its range shrinking considerably from Friday morning's projections, which saw it earning between $25 and $35 million. Additionally, this sees Clayface set to fall more than $10 million short of the $37.1 million debut of Supergirl to earn the lowest domestic debut of the DC Universe.

This is not entirely shocking, considering the fact that Clayface is rated R, meaning that it inherently has a more limited audience than the PG-13 movies that it is following. It is behaving more like an R-rated October horror movie such as Smile (which debuted with $22.6 million), Saw X ($18.3 million), The Exorcist: Believer ($26.5 million), Smile 2 ($23 million), and Black Phone 2 ($27.3 million) rather than a superhero blockbuster. Below, see how it compares to the other movies in the DCU:

Title	Domestic Debut	Worldwide Box Office
Superman (2025)	$125 million	$618.7 million
Supergirl (2026)	$37.1 million	$126.4 million
Clayface (2026)	$24-25 million	TBD

Presuming its global multiplier behaves more like an R-rated horror movie as well, it is possible that the new DCU movie could have a similar trajectory to 2023's Saw X. Clayface reviews have earned it solid Rotten Tomatoes scores of 76% from critics and 94% from audiences, which is roughly comparable with the Saw sequel's 81% and 88%. That movie earned $112.8 million worldwide, so if Clayface follows its lead, it could eventually rise as high as $153 million by the end of its run.

While this is not much more than Supergirl earned earlier this year, this puts Clayface in a much better position because the movie's reported budget is a significantly slimmer $44 million (almost a quarter of what Supergirl cost). That price tag most likely places its estimated break-even point somewhere around $110 million, which is a total that it has strong potential to clear.

Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Ultimately, Clayface seems like it's on track to earn a profit. Even if it falls slightly short of its estimated break-even point in theaters, it should still be in a position to make up for any deficit with its impending video on demand, streaming, and physical media releases. Whether or not it earns a profit strong enough to merit a sequel or the continued exploration of R-rated or genre-bending installments in the DCU remains to be seen.

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  Tom Rhys Harries

  Matt Hagen / Clayface

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  Naomi Ackie

  Dr. Caitlin Bates